This 117 part expository study of Luke was preached at Flagstaff Christian Fellowship in 1997-2000. Audio and manuscripts are available for each lesson (except lesson 77 which does not contain audio).
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Postmodernism is the prevailing philosophy of our day. A main tenet of this philosophy is that there is no such thing as absolute truth. Rather, truth is personal and subjective. It is not discovered, but created. In religious and spiritual matters, especially, to say that you have the truth is viewed as arrogance because this implies that you’re right and others are wrong.
You’ve probably encountered this philosophy when you have attempted to share the gospel with someone, only to have him or her respond, “It’s great that you believe in Jesus and that it works for you. But I’m into the New Age vegetarian natural Zen approach, and it works for me.” Spiritual truth becomes a matter of personal opinion and whatever works.
But postmodernism is not only “out there.” It’s also in the evangelical church. George Barna claims that 53 percent of those calling themselves “evangelical Christians” do not believe in absolute truth. And 43 percent agree with this statement, “It does not matter what religious faith you follow because all faiths teach similar lessons about life.” (Cited by Douglas Groothuis, “Telling the Truth Today,” Focal Point, Summer, 1995, p. 3.)
Postmodernism also lies behind the strong push toward tolerance, where doctrinal truth is played down and love and unity are magnified. It also shows itself in the emphasis on feelings over thought. If you listen to testimonies, it is rare to hear someone say, “I am a committed Christian because I became convinced of the truth claims of Christianity.” Rather, you will often hear, “I went to a Christian concert and felt so good when I heard the music. So I went forward at the altar call and felt a warm sensation come over me. Ever since then I’ve felt so good!”
I agree that the Christian faith is not just a matter of the head, but also of the heart. But it is not just a matter of the heart. The emotional aspect of the Christian faith must be firmly grounded on the historical and doctrinal truth of the faith as revealed to us in Scripture. Otherwise, we have no firm foundation when our feelings change and we have no objective basis for evaluating our feelings. It is essential to affirm that the Christian faith is rooted in objective history and absolute, unchanging truth.
Luke wrote his gospel to assure his acquaintance, Theophilus, of the truth concerning the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Beyond Theophilus, Luke “wrote for people at some remove from the ministry of Jesus, both in geography and time, and his task was to provide them with such an account of the story of Jesus as would enable them to see that the story with which they had already become partially acquainted was a reliable basis for their faith” (I. Howard Marshall, Commentary on Luke [Eerdmans], p. 35). We don’t know for sure who the specific recipient, Theophilus, was. His name means “friend of God,” and the title, “most excellent,” seems to identify him as a ranking Roman official (see Acts 23:26; 24:3; 26:25). He had received some instruction in the Christian faith and he probably was a believer. But he was troubled by some nagging questions so that he needed assurance about the truthfulness of what he had believed.
Theophilus may have been troubled by questions like, “Is the Christian faith I believed in really the truth and the only truth? If it is true, why was Jesus rejected by His people and crucified? Why are Christians being persecuted? Why have most of the Jews rejected the message, while the Gentiles are receiving it?” (Adapted from Darrell Bock, Luke [Baker Exegetical Commentary], 1:65).
Although Luke never identifies himself as the author of this gospel, since the earliest days of the church he has widely been accepted as the author of it and the companion volume, Acts. Both volumes are addressed to Theophilus and are linked to the same author. This means that by sheer volume, Luke, a Gentile, wrote more of the New Testament than any other man, including Paul (Luke is the longest book in the New Testament). Luke is mentioned by name only three times in the New Testament (Col. 4:14; Philemon 24; 2 Tim. 4:11). From these references and from the “we” sections in Acts (16:10-17; 20:5-15; 21:1-18; 27:1-28:16) we learn that he was a physician who accompanied the apostle Paul and faithfully labored with him in the gospel. He stayed with Paul right up to his final imprisonment and execution.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke comprise what are called the synoptic gospels, because they all tend to treat the life of Christ from a similar perspective and use much common material, whereas John takes a different approach. There has been much debate over which of the three was written first and on what sources the gospel writers used. Most scholars believe that Mark was written before Luke and that Luke used it as one of his sources, since nearly half of Mark’s verses are found in Luke.
None of the gospels are biographies, strictly speaking, but rather are selective, interpretive sketches of the life of Christ, each with a different purpose. Matthew was aimed at the Jew to show that Jesus is the Messiah-King of Israel. Mark was written with a Roman slant to show Jesus as the suffering servant Savior, focusing on His deeds. John, written both to the Jew and Gentile, portrays Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, so that the reader might believe and have eternal life. Luke is aimed at the Greek to show Jesus as the ideal man, the Son of Man, the Savior of all people.
Luke has a number of distinctive features. He devotes more space to the birth and infancy of Jesus than any other gospel. He alone mentions the incident from Jesus’ youth, when He was left behind at the Temple. On the other end of Jesus’ life, Luke alone mentions the ascension and, in his companion volume (Acts) traces the history of Jesus’ followers beyond that momentous event.
Luke clearly has a universal emphasis, showing that the gospel is for every class, race, and nation. The angels tell the shepherds that the news of the Savior who has been born is “good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people” (2:10). The aged Simeon prophesies that this Child is God’s salvation which He has prepared in the presence of all peoples, “a light of revelation to the Gentiles” (2:32). As John the Baptist preaches, Luke alone (of the synoptics) cites Isaiah, that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (3:6). When our Lord begins His ministry at Nazareth, He creates animosity by pointing out that Elijah was sent to a Gentile widow in Sidon and that the Gentile Naaman the leper was cleansed (4:25-27). Luke closes with Jesus’ commission that “repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations” (24:47).
Not just Gentiles, but sinners of every stripe are the focus of Luke’s gospel. He uses the word “sinners” 16 times, more than Matthew (5), Mark (5), and John (4) combined (W. Graham Scroggie, A Guide to the Gospels [Revell], p. 367). By focusing on sinners, outcasts, the poor, and women (who were often disregarded in that day) and by showing that Jesus Himself, even in His birth in the stable, was rejected, Luke shows Christ to be the tender Savior of those whom society rejects or despises. Luke is distinctive for a lengthy section (9:51-19:27) that traces Jesus’ final journey toward Jerusalem where He will face ultimate rejection. The theme of the whole section is also the rejection of Jesus, the Son of Man.
Luke is the only synoptic gospel to call Jesus “Savior” (2:11). He alone uses the word salvation (6 times) and ten times he uses the word for preaching the good news, which is only used once in the other gospels. Luke alone of the three uses the word grace (8 times) and Luke is the only Gospel writer to use the words “redemption” and “redeem” (J. Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book [Zondervan], 5:254). The theme verse of Luke occurs in the context of the salvation of the despised tax collector, Zaccheus, where Jesus explains His mission: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (19:10). Walter Liefeld states, “The entire Gospel of Luke pictures Jesus as reaching out to the lost in forgiveness” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Zondervan], 8:811).
Luke has been called the Gospel of Prayer because of his emphasis, not only on our need to pray, but also on Jesus’ prayer life. Nine times Luke tells of prayers that Jesus offered in the crises of His life, and seven of these are unique to Luke (Scroggie, p. 370). It has also been called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit, who is named more in Luke than in Matthew and Mark together, and even more than in John (Baxter, p. 246). There is a marked emphasis on Jesus’ dependence on the Spirit. Thus Luke shows us Jesus as the Savior who was fully human, but who triumphed as man through dependence on prayer and the Holy Spirit.
Darrell Bock (pp. 1, 2) points out four issues that were particularly problematic in the church of Luke’s time. First was the question of salvation, especially of how the Gentiles could be included as God’s people on an equal basis with the Jews. While Luke answers this issue primarily in Acts, he paves the way in his Gospel by his emphasis on salvation to the Gentiles.
Second, there was the seeming paradox that the most natural audience for the gospel message, the Jewish nation, was largely responding negatively. Why was God’s plan meeting with such hostility? In Acts Luke shows that the church did not separate itself from Israel, but that the nation had turned the church out. Luke’s Gospel shows how the nation and its leaders had rejected Jesus, thus charting the course that followed for the church.
The third issue was how a crucified Jesus fit into God’s plan. How could He bring the consummation of God’s promises? Acts supplies the major answer by emphasizing the centrality of the risen Savior in the preaching of the Apostles, but Luke lays the groundwork by presenting the Christology underlying this message.
Fourth, what does it mean to respond to Jesus and how should His disciples live until the day He returns? Bock (p. 2) states, “This is a major burden of the Gospel of Luke: to define Jesus’ mission and that of the disciples who follow him. The bulk of Luke explains how Jesus prepared the disciples for his departure and prepared them to minister in his absence. This is where the crucial Lucan section of chapters 9-19, the Jerusalem journey, fits into the Gospel and controls its purpose.” That section’s thrust, says Bock (p. 23), “is that Jesus gives a new way to follow God, which is not the way of the Jewish leadership. The theme is ‘listen to him.’” A broad outline of Luke may be helpful:
1. Introduction: Purpose for writing (1:1-4).
2. The Advent of the Son of Man (1:5-4:13).
3. The Ministry of the Son of Man: Galilee (4:14-9:50).
4. The Rejection of the Son of Man: Toward Jerusalem (9:51-19:27).
A. Mounting opposition (9:51-11:54).
B. Instructions in view of the opposition (12:1-19:27).
5. The Suffering of the Son of Man (19:28-23:56).
6. The Triumph of the Son of Man (24:1-53).
With that as a brief overview, I want to examine Luke’s introduction, which shows us his purpose for writing. To sum it up:
Since Luke’s Gospel is an accurate, orderly, historically true account of the life and ministry of the Savior, we can believe it with confidence.
The main thrust of this introduction is that Theophilus and all of Luke’s readers would know that the matters he is about to relate are historically true and thus believable. Three points:
Luke is at pains to make this clear, and it is not a trivial point. The apostle Paul links the entire Christian faith to one verifiable historical event, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. If that is not true, says Paul, then go be a hedonist: Eat, drink, and be merry, because tomorrow you die and there’s nothing else. But if it is true that Jesus was raised bodily from the grave, then He is Lord and we must submit our entire lives to Him (see 1 Corinthians 15).
What this means is that Christianity is not a religious philosophy based on the speculations and ideas of some great religious thinkers. Christianity is primarily about the God who created the universe miraculously invading human history in the person of Jesus Christ who uniquely revealed God to us. Thus the great doctrines of the Bible are not matters of personal opinion or philosophical speculation. They are matters of revelation from God and therefore, they must be submitted to. This is especially true concerning the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has revealed Himself in history in the person of Jesus Christ. Luke wants us to know and believe this with absolute certainty.
How can we know that this is true? Luke mentions several things to establish the credibility of his account. First, there were many written witnesses to the life and ministry of Christ which Luke consulted (1:1). We do not know who these witnesses were. They may have included the Gospel of Mark, but probably also included other written sources which are no longer extant. But the fact that there were many and, as we can presume, that Luke used these many witnesses at points where they all lined up, lends credibility to Luke’s research.
Second, Luke states that many of these written sources were eyewitnesses to the entire ministry of Jesus Christ (1:2). Since this was an essential qualification for an apostle (Acts 1:21-22), Luke is here referring to apostolic witnesses who had handed down what they had seen and knew to be true because they had been with Jesus. Also, these men had become “servants of the word,”, the gospel (1:2). They were not religious hucksters, but men of integrity whose character and lives backed up the message of self-denial and servanthood as preached by Jesus Christ.
In addition to all of these witnesses, Luke himself, although not an eyewitness to these things, had carefully researched the written and oral accounts to verify everything before he wrote (1:3). Probably while he was living in Caesarea during Paul’s two-year imprisonment, Luke had interviewed a number of the eyewitnesses, including Jesus’ mother Mary, to make sure he had the story in its correct form. Even though we who hold to the verbal inspiration of Scripture believe that Luke was inspired by the Holy Spirit, this does not mean that the Spirit dictated Luke’s message to him. Rather, the Spirit guided Luke as he carefully researched the history of Jesus’ life and ministry, and guided him as he wrote so that his words were exactly what God intended. Thus the inspiration of the Holy Spirit does not preclude the use of careful scholarship on Luke’s part.
It’s not surprising that critics jump on Luke’s claim to accuracy. If they can show that he made historical errors or that his account cannot be reconciled with the other gospel writers, then they do not have to submit to the message, namely, that Jesus is Lord. So we have the liberal “scholars” of the “Jesus Seminar,” who get together and vote on which parts of the gospels they think are “true” sayings and deeds of Jesus. But their votes are based on the assumption that the gospel writers were inventing or bending history to make a theological point to their readers, which flies directly in the face of Luke’s plain assertions in this introduction! And, their votes are based purely on subjectivism, which is not careful historiography.
There are some difficult problems which scholars have raised about Luke’s historical accuracy. One concerns the census in the time of Quirinius mentioned in chapter 2. There is no record that Augustus ever ordered such a census, and there is dispute over whether Quirinius was indeed governor of Syria at the time when Jesus was born. The fact that there is no independent record of such a census does not mean that it did not happen. We lack many historical records from the reign of Caesar Augustus. And the same is true regarding the years of Quirinius’ governorship. As one scholar has pointed out, “The probabilities are against Luke’s having been careless of a point so easily checked when he was affirming to a prominent leader his own care for accuracy, and was using historical detail to substantiate his central message.” Another scholar, William Ramsay, asked “how, if Luke made such a glaring error in the facts surrounding the birth of Christ, did these inaccuracies escape the attention of the enemies of the Gospel in Roman times?” (W. T. Dayton, Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible [Zondervan], 3:1006).
One more observation before leaving this point: The fact that Luke wrote his account insures us of the abiding accuracy of what we read. An oral report can change over time, so that hundreds of years later the details can be quite embellished. But we have the very words that Luke recorded. After reminding us that Christianity is a religion built on facts, J. C. Ryle (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Baker], 2:2) states,
The first preachers did not go up and down the world, proclaiming an elaborate, artificial system of abstruse doctrines and deep principles. They made it their first business to tell men great plain facts. They went about telling a sin-laden world, that the Son of God had come down to earth, and lived for us, and died for us, and risen again. The Gospel, at its first publication, was far more simple than many make it now. It was neither more nor less than the history of Christ.
Thus, Luke’s Gospel is rooted in the facts of verifiable history.
He wrote about “the things accomplished among us” (the KJV renders it the things “most surely believed among us,” but the context supports the NASB and NIV rendering). What had been accomplished among them was the saving purpose of God in sending His own Son as the Savior of sinners. When Luke says that he is writing it out “in consecutive order” (NASB), the Greek is better translated, “in orderly fashion.” Luke sometimes does not follow a chronological order, but he carefully, thoughtfully arranged his material to show that Jesus is the Savior not just of the Jews, but of all who will trust in Him. The French commentator, Godet, observes that if Matthew is “A treatise on the right of Jesus to the Messianic sovereignty of Israel,” then Luke is “A treatise on the right of the heathen to share in the Messianic kingdom founded by Jesus.” (F. Godet, A Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke [I. K. Funk & Co.], p. 40.) That’s Luke’s purposeful message.
Luke wrote so that his friend, Theophilus, would be certain about these crucial matters. Of course, he wrote for a much broader audience as well. God’s truth as recorded by Luke is true for every person and every culture of every age. It is not subjective “truth” which people are free to take or leave as it may suit their fancy. Luke confronts us with the awesome person of Jesus Christ, the Chief Cornerstone. If we do not submit our lives to Him, then at the judgment, that Stone will scatter us like dust (Luke 20:18). If Luke’s message about Jesus is true as he claims, then you can no longer live as you used to. You must believe the message, submit your life to it, and hand it off to others who must do the same. As Paul told Timothy, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2).
J. C. Philpot wrote,
Right views concerning Christ are indispensable to a right faith, and a right faith is indispensable to salvation. To stumble at the foundation, is, concerning faith, to make shipwreck altogether; for as Immanuel, God with us, is the grand Object of faith, to err in views of His eternal Deity, or to err in views of His sacred humanity, is alike destructive (cited in “Free Grace Broadcaster,” Fall 1997, p. 19).
After careful research based on many eyewitnesses, Luke wrote his Gospel to show that Jesus is the eternal God who came in human flesh to seek and to save those who are lost. Faith in Jesus Christ is rooted in the accurate historical record that has come down to us in Luke’s Gospel. It is not an optional idea that you might want to consider if it grabs you. It is absolute truth to be believed and handed on to others.
1. How do you respond to a Christian who says, “Love is more important than correct doctrine”?
2. How can we help people in our relativistic culture see that there is absolute truth in the spiritual realm?
3. How can we distinguish between core biblical truths, which we must believe, and secondary matters, where there’s room for sincere Christians to differ?
4. If Luke is historically accurate, how can we deal with harmonistic problems between the Gospel accounts?
Copyright Steven J. Cole, 1997, All Rights Reserved
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Have you ever prayed for something over and over again, year in and year out, but God has not answered? I hope that you can answer yes, because if you say no, it only shows that you are not a praying person. If you pray, you have prayed for things that God has not yet answered.
One unanswered prayer that every committed Christian should be praying is that God would send revival to our country. It is as of yet unanswered because nothing that is being described as revival today even comes close to the many examples of true revival that God has sent in times past. True revival is not a matter of hanging a banner in front of the church that announces, “Revival This Week, 7 p.m.” True revival is not a superficial, emotional response that results in a temporary experience, but no long-term fruit of righteousness.
True revival is when the living God sovereignly and powerfully breaks into human history with the good news of His salvation. It invariably begins with His people coming under deep conviction of sin and turning from that sin in genuine repentance. It always involves a recovery of biblical truth, especially the truth about how sinners are reconciled to a holy God. Therefore, it also involves a recovery of the centrality and authority of God’s Word over all of life. The renewed sense of God’s presence, power, holiness, and truth then inevitably spills out of the church and into the world, resulting in many genuine conversions. If you want to read two excellent books on the subject, I recommend Revival, by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Revival and Revivalism, by Iain Murray.
Our text records God breaking into history with the greatest revival ever, since it involved the coming of the Savior into this world. If our nation is to be spared God’s awful judgment for our many sins, we desperately need true revival. Therefore, these verses deserve our careful attention.
Most students of the history of revivals acknowledge that God is sovereign concerning when and where He sends revival. We cannot plan and orchestrate such a powerful moving of Almighty God. As John Blanchard has put it, “Man can no more organize revival than he can dictate to the wind” (in “Reformation & Revival” catalog, p. 10). Yet, at the same time, there are certain conditions that are common to most revivals. While meeting the conditions does not guarantee revival, not meeting the conditions surely prohibits revival. Our text is no exception. It shows us,
While God is sovereign in bringing revival, we must be prepared to receive His sovereign grace.
Zecharias and his wife, Elizabeth, were faithful, believing Jews, both from the tribe of Levi. Luke sets the scene for what follows by informing us that they had no child and that they were both advanced in years (1:7). As a priest, Zecharias would serve at the temple for two one-week periods each year, apart from the three great festivals (Howard Marshall, Commentary on Luke [Eerdmans], p. 52). Because of the great number of priests, estimated at between 18,000 and 20,000, they used a system of lots to determine which priests got to offer the incense on the altar in the holy place. This was a once in a lifetime privilege (Mishnah, Tamid 5.2), and so it would have been the high point of Zecharias’ priestly ministry.
The incense offering pictured the prayers of God’s people rising up to Him in a pleasing aroma. While the priest offered incense inside the holy place, outside the worshipers were praying. The most common prayer was that God would visit His people with salvation through the Messiah. As Zecharias was offering the incense, suddenly an angel appeared to him and announced that his prayers had been heard. He and his wife would have a son, and he would not be an ordinary son, but the very one predicted by Malachi, the forerunner who would prepare the way for the Lord. Walter Liefeld states, “God was breaking into the ancient routine of Jewish ritual with the word of his decisive saving act” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Zondervan], 8:826).
There is debate about whether Zecharias would have been offering prayer for a son at this sacred moment in his priestly ministry. Most likely he was praying with everyone else for the deliverance of Israel, but in His grace, God answered his prayer for the Messiah to come and at the same time answered his prayers of many years for a son. But the angel’s sudden appearance with this great news, not only of a son for Zecharias and Elizabeth, but of the soon coming of the Messiah, shows us how …
It had been 400 years since God’s people had heard a word from God. As in the days just before Samuel’s ministry, “word from the Lord was rare in those days, visions were infrequent” (1 Sam. 3:1). All this while, a faithful remnant among God’s people was praying that He would fulfill His longstanding promise of sending salvation through His Messiah. Then, suddenly, without advance notice, God broke into history and announced what He was about to do in the birth of John the Baptist.
Although Luke does not explain the meaning of any of the Hebrew names for his Gentile readers, I cannot help but think that there is a divine significance to each of them. John means “God has been gracious,” and that was certainly fitting. Liefeld states, “That the child was named before his birth stresses God’s sovereignty in choosing him to be his servant” (ibid.). Commenting on verse 15, Howard Marshall states, “The language expresses divine choice and care of a person from his very birth, but here in connection with 1:41-44 a pre-natal sanctification of John is implied; even before he was born, the hand of God was on him to prepare him for his work. Thus in the strongest possible way the divine choice of John for his crucial task is stressed” (p. 58).
The name Zecharias means “God remembers,” and it shows us that no matter how long it may seem to us, God has not forgotten His covenant promises. The meaning of the name Elizabeth is not as certain, but it probably means, “My God is an oath,” pointing to God’s absolute faithfulness to His sworn promises. Together, these three names, John, Zecharias, and Elizabeth, point us to God’s sovereign grace toward His chosen people. In the matter of salvation, God sovereignly and faithfully takes the initiative in His time in accordance with His covenant of grace.
It was “in the days of Herod” that this word of hope came to Zecharias. Herod was an immoral, violent king of Edomite descent who claimed to be a Jew in his religion, but was such in name only. He reigned as king of Judea from 37-4 BC. He held onto power by murdering numerous family members over the years, including one son just five days before his own death. He was the same tyrant who slaughtered the infants of Bethlehem in his attempt to kill the newborn king of the Jews. It was near the end of this evil reign that the Lord broke into history with His gracious message to Zecharias.
Herod’s reign followed the 400 silent years from the time of Malachi, years when Israel had been oppressed by various foreign powers. Even religion in Israel was corrupt. The high priests and members of the Sanhedrin vied for power and prestige. They made a healthy profit in the business of selling animals for sacrifice in the temple precincts. It was a bleak situation spiritually and morally. Perhaps in spite of his name, “God remembers,” Zecharias often wondered if God had forgotten His people.
But it’s often at such bleak times that God breaks into history with true revival. His power is made perfect in our weakness. Both personally and nationally, God’s salvation is revealed to those who are helpless in themselves, who have no hope but God Himself. It was not a coincidence that when God wanted to raise up Samuel as a prophet for Israel, He caused a godly woman, Hannah, to be barren. Even so here, when He wanted to send His forerunner before Messiah, He withheld children from Elizabeth, and waited until she was too old to produce a child. Then, unmistakably, the resulting blessing came from His almighty hand.
If things seem spiritually dark in our day, and they certainly do, we should be encouraged to pray for true revival. As Isaiah reminds us, “the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; neither is His ear so dull that it cannot hear” (Isa. 59:1). What applies nationally to our need for revival also applies personally to you. If your situation seems spiritually hopeless, if your sins have overwhelmed you, cry out to God to save you. The theme of the Gospel of Luke is that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (19:10). If you feel lost and in despair, then you are a candidate for His gracious salvation.
Thus God sovereignly takes the initiative in sending revival and often waits until things are hopeless so that no one will glory in himself, but only in the Lord.
Even though the times were spiritually dark, here were Zecharias and Elizabeth, “righteous in the sight of God” (1:6), going about their lives in obscure faithfulness. When Luke states that they were “walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord,” he does not mean that they were sinlessly perfect, which no one is. Rather, they walked consistently in the fear of the Lord, seeking to obey Him in all their ways. Mary and Joseph were another godly couple in Israel. It was through such obscure people, quietly living in godliness, going about their normal duties, that the Lord brought about this great breakthrough in salvation history.
If God brings revival in our day, it will be because His ordinary people walk in obedience before Him, seeking His kingdom and glory. You may think, “Who am I? What can I do? I’m not particularly gifted. I’m unknown in the Christian world.” But look what God did with these unknown but faithful people! You may not be able to preach like John, but John wouldn’t have been there had it not been for his faithful parents. If you walk in daily obedience before Him, entreating Him to pour out His grace on our land, He could use you as the mother or father of a great Christian leader who would turn our country back to God. That leads to the second point. While revival is a matter of God’s sovereignty…
As I said, we can’t orchestrate a true revival, but we can thwart one. We need to be the kind of people that Zecharias and Elizabeth were, so that God can use us if He chooses to do so.
John Calvin comments, “In ordering our life, … therefore, our first study ought to be to approve ourselves to God; and we know that what he chiefly requires is a sincere heart and a pure conscience” (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], 16:10). Men may look at our deeds, but God looks first at our heart. This means that we must trust in Christ for forgiveness of all our sins and for His righteousness in place of our own. We must judge our sins on the thought level, because “all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:13). We can fake it before the church and the world, but we can’t fake it before God.
It is ironic that Herod was called “Herod the Great” by his contemporaries, but here John is called great by God (1:15). It would be the wicked son of this wicked tyrant who put John to death. But in the final court of God, both Herods will not be great, but John will be highly esteemed. The true estimate of any life is not what others think, but what God thinks. So we must guard against living for the approval and applause of others. With John and his godly parents, we must live to be approved unto God.
John, the man God used to spark this great revival, was set apart unto God while even in his mother’s womb. There is debate over whether he was a Nazirite (Num. 6:3), since there is no mention of his hair not being cut. But clearly, God wanted John to be distinct from the culture around him, even from the common religious culture. Rather than being controlled by wine, he was to be controlled by the Holy Spirit (see Eph. 5:18). He was to go before the Lord “in the spirit and power of Elijah,” (Luke 1:17), to “turn back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God” (1:16). While John did not do any physical miracles, as Elijah did, he was powerfully used of God, as Elijah was, to turn many back to God. Conversions are a far greater display of God’s mighty power than physical miracles are.
While God has gifted us all differently, and the results of His working through us will differ, we all should seek to be used by Him in the process of turning sinners back to God. To be used in this way, the first requirement is a life that is distinct from our evil culture. People will read our lives to see if we are truly different or whether we’re just putting on a show. Then, as we live under the control of the Holy Spirit, He will use us to bear witness to others of the hope that is within us. As Peter wrote, “But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pet. 3:15). If we live righteous lives, set apart unto God, filled with His Spirit, then God can use us to bring revival.
John would be used to “turn back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God” (1:16), and to “turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous” (1:17). These are the two great commandments, to love God and to love others, beginning in the home. In times of spiritual declension, people invariably forsake these two great commandments. They turn away from God in self-willed disobedience, and they selfishly disregard love for others. Therefore, in times of revival, the process must be reversed: People must turn in repentance toward God, seeking to obey His holy commandments; and, they must turn in repentance toward those they have wronged, beginning in family relationships and begin to practice biblical love.
One reason I am so strongly opposed to the psychological approach that has flooded into the church in recent times is that it does not focus on these two great commandments by dealing the deathblow to self. In fact, quite the opposite, psychology seeks to affirm the self. One of the basic assumptions of the “Christian psychology” movement is that at the root of many, if not most, of our problems is low self-esteem. So the counselor’s job is to help the counselee see how worthy she is and to teach her how to be more assertive so that she can deal with her abusive spouse or with her rebellious children.
This mentality is pervasive in the Christian world! I read an article stating that one reason pastors fall into adultery is low self-esteem. I recently saw some literature from a ministry that seeks to help homosexuals. It stated that one cause of homosexuality is low self-esteem. The same philosophy lies behind so-called “Christian” treatment of anorexia and bulimia.
In direct opposition to this, the Bible clearly asserts that at the root of all of our problems is the love of self. The adulterous pastor does not love Christ or His church or his own family or the woman he defiles. He loves one person more than all others--himself! The homosexual is not loving God or other men. He is loving himself, seeking to gratify his own lust. The woman with an eating disorder is self-absorbed. She is vainly trying to find love and acceptance by having a slender body. Her focus is not on how she can daily love God and serve others. She loves herself, and most “Christian” counselors feed the flame by teaching her how to love herself even more!
Self-love is also at the root of our relational problems. Why are fathers and children angry and alienated from one another? Perhaps the dad has neglected his children because he is pouring himself into his career in the hopes of being a success. Who is he loving? Or the children are defiant and disrespectful toward their parents, whom God has told them to honor and obey. Who are they loving? Or a wife decides that being a homemaker is not fulfilling, so she goes off on the career track, neglecting her husband and children. Who is she loving? The sins in families often escalate, so that the ones sinned against sin in response, leading to a chain reaction of sin. At the heart of the whole relational breakdown is the love of self.
If we want God to send revival, God’s people must humble themselves, confess their wretched love of self, and seek to obey God and serve one another in love. Rather than blame others, we must point the finger at ourselves in genuine repentance. We must go to God first, and then to those we have sinned against, and ask forgiveness for our self-centered attitudes and sinful behavior. In The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Eerdmans] (1:136), Alfred Edersheim describes the home of Zecharias and Elizabeth:
Such a household … would have all that was beautiful in the religion of the time: devotion towards God; a home of affection and purity; reverence towards all that was sacred in things Divine and human; ungrudging, self-denying, loving charity to the poor; the tenderest regard for the feelings of others, so as not to raise a blush, nor to wound their hearts; above all, intense faith and hope in the higher and better future of Israel.
If we want God to send revival, we must be righteous in His sight, set apart to Him, filled with His Spirit, and repentant of all our sins. Finally,
John’s ministry was to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (1:17). Since it was Jesus, born of the virgin Mary, for whom John was preparing the way, it is clear that Jesus is the Lord, eternal God in human flesh. But the point is, it is the Lord Himself who visits us in revival. If the presence of the angel was an awesome thing, causing Zecharias to be gripped by fear, how much more awesome is a visitation from the Lord Himself! Many Christians in our day are flippant toward the Lord. John MacArthur tells of a pastor friend of his who told John that the Lord often appeared to him while he was shaving. John’s incredulous response was, “And you keep shaving?”
Whenever in the Bible people encountered either an angel or the Lord Himself, there is one uniform response--reverent fear! If we want the living God to visit us with revival, our hearts need to be prepared. As Paul put it, “I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men” (Acts 24:16). If we are daily judging our sin on the thought level, seeking to live as those set apart for the Lord, filled with His Spirit, repentant of all our sins, we will be prepared for that awesome event, should it happen, that the Lord Himself would visit us in revival.
When God sends revival, He also sends great joy. The angel announced to Zecharias that he would have joy and gladness at John’s birth, and that many would rejoice (1:14). They were not just rejoicing at the birth of the child, but at what this child would bring—good news of a great joy for all the people, the news of the Savior (1:19; 2:10). Sin always causes pain and destruction; God’s salvation and righteousness result in great joy and gladness as relationships are reconciled.
I wish I could read to you the descriptions of revival in Iain Murray’s excellent book, Revival & Revivalism. He reports how churches felt a sense of God that also flooded them with humility to the point that they felt that they had scarcely begun to be Christians. They had a new understanding of the greatness of the Savior and of conviction of sin (p. 30). They also were impressed by the power of God’s truth. Far from emotional excess, “Congregations were then awed and subdued and it was often the degree of silence and stillness, more than anything else, which showed that a new day had come” (p. 138).
Murray repeatedly shows that there were no extraordinary means employed, no special campaigns, but rather the normal means of prayer and the preaching of the Word. But suddenly God broke into the midst of churches so that people who before had been complacent were now gripped with the reality of eternity and everyone sensed, “that in very deed, God was in this place” (p. 139). We need to pray that God would graciously send us such a visitation of His saving grace. And, we need to prepare ourselves to welcome the Lord Himself into our midst.
Copyright 1997, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Every thinking person has struggled with the problem of doubt. C. S. Lewis, who was an atheist before he was converted to Christianity, acknowledged that just as the Christian has his moments of doubt, so does the atheist. He wrote, “Believe in God, and you will have to face hours when it seems obvious that this material world is the only reality; disbelieve in Him, and you must face hours when this material world seems to shout at you that it is not all. No conviction religious or irreligious will, of itself, end once and for all this fifth-columnist in the soul. Only the practice of faith resulting in the habit of faith will gradually do that.” (Cited in “Focal Point,” July-September, 1989.)
Doubt comes in varying degrees. There is the doubt of the proud skeptic, who delights in his own intellect. He pits himself against God as if he is a match for the Almighty. He delights in upsetting the faith of weak believers. He sets forth his arguments against God’s existence or the Christian faith as if he is the first brilliant thinker in history to come up with such insights. Such doubters often find jobs teaching at American universities! The Bible dismisses such scoffers with the word, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Ps. 14:1).
Another level of doubt is that of the person who wants to believe, but he’s struggling with difficult questions and he has not yet come to see the glory and excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ as the all-sufficient Savior of sinners. While this person’s questions are often sincere, invariably they are mixed up with sin, especially the sin of wanting to run his own life apart from the lordship of Christ.
In dealing with this type of person, I often use John 7:17, where Jesus said, “If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself.” I’ll point out that while there are some tough questions, the core issue is one of the heart, of being willing to obey God. I encourage such people to read the gospel accounts with an open heart and ask the question, “Who is Jesus Christ?” If He is God in human flesh, who offered Himself as the sacrifice for sinners, then we must trust Him and submit ourselves to Him. Once our hearts are subject to Him, He will give us satisfactory answers to most of the tough questions.
Another type of doubt is that of the believer who has gotten his eyes off the Lord in the midst of a difficult situation. The disciples were there when they were being swamped by the storm at sea and they shouted, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” He first rebuked the disciples, “Why are you timid, you men of little faith?” Then He rebuked the wind and the sea (Matt. 8:25-26). The distraught father was there when the disciples could not cast the demon out of his son. He entreated Jesus, “But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” Jesus responded, “If You can! All things are possible to him who believes.” The father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:22-24).
All of us who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior have been there, too. We believe, but we get our eyes off the Lord and onto the trial that looms before us. If you put a penny close to your eye, it will block out the brilliance of the sun. If you let a trial consume your vision, it will block the glorious power of the Almighty God.
Zacharias was there that day in the temple when Gabriel, the angel who stands in God’s very presence, appeared to him and promised to give Zacharias and his wife, Elizabeth, a son. He should have been ecstatic with joy. Every day for years this devout couple had prayed, “Lord, if it would be Your will, give us a son.” But that had been years ago. Now it was too late. They were both long past the time when even couples who had children were able to conceive. Zacharias had reconciled himself to reality—they were not going to have a son. He had come to terms with God over the matter: “God is sovereign. He is free to bestow His blessings on whom He wishes. For some inscrutable reason, He has withheld that blessing from us.” And now, Zacharias was not willing to open himself to the roller coaster of hopes and fears that he had long left behind. And so he doubted the word of the angel.
What can Zacharias teach us about the problem of doubt?
Zacharias was “righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord” (1:6). Being righteous in the sight of the Lord means that his godliness was not an outward show, like the “righteousness” of the Pharisees, but a matter of the heart. The man walked with God and he had done so for many years. The fact that such a godly man doubted shows us that none are exempt from the problem.
Other great men and women of faith in the Bible also had their moments of doubt. Sarah stumbled over a similar situation. When the Lord announced to Abraham that his wife would give birth to a son, Sarah, listening on the other side of the tent wall, laughed in doubt (Gen. 18:10-15).
The son of Zacharias, John the Baptist, had a time of doubt. He was languishing in prison and he began to wonder, “If Jesus is truly the Messiah, why am I, His messenger, here in prison?” So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.” Then He gently rebuked John’s doubt by adding, “And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me” (Luke 7:22, 23). Jesus went on to tell the crowd that among those born of women, there is no one greater than John. He was a godly man, but he had his time of doubt.
So doubt is a problem, even for those who are righteous in God’s sight. If godly men like Zacharias and John fell into doubt, we should be on guard, so that we do not fall. Since even the godly have fallen, we may wonder, “What is the source of doubt?”
Have you ever talked to someone who said, “If I just saw a miracle or had a direct word from God, I would believe”? It doesn’t work that way. Here, Zacharias had an angel suddenly appear and speak a direct revelation from God, but he did not believe. Later in Luke, the rich man in Hades pleaded with Abraham to send someone to warn his brothers, so that they would not also come to that awful place of torment. Abraham replied that his brothers had Moses and the prophets. But the rich man said, “No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!” But Abraham replied, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:27-31). Doubt is not a problem of evidence, but of the sinfulness of the human heart. Even those who are righteous struggle with the sinful nature.
You may wonder, “How does Zacharias’ question differ from Mary’s question (1:34)?” When the angel told her that she would become pregnant with Jesus, she asked, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel did not confront her for doubting. Abraham laughed and brought up the matter of his and Sarah’s old age when he was promised a son, but he was not corrected for doubting, while Sarah was (Gen. 17:17). Gideon twice asked God for a sign, and he was not rebuked. But Zacharias asked the angel for a sign, and was rebuked for his doubting. Why these differences?
I think John Calvin (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], 1:23) is correct when he brings up these varying cases and points out that the difference was not in the words spoken, but in the hearts of each person. He acknowledges that while God is free to punish one person and pardon another, as He sees fit, that is not the explanation here. Rather, God, who sees the hidden secrets of each person’s heart, knew that Zacharias was different than Abraham, Gideon, or Mary. Zacharias was limiting God by the normal course of human nature. He and Elizabeth were too old to have children. Case closed! But he should have acknowledged, as Gabriel says to Mary, “Nothing will be impossible with God” (1:37).
Our sinful hearts make us all prone to limit God by human potential. The disciples fell into this error when they were faced with the crowd of 5,000 hungry men, plus women and children. Jesus asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?” John explains that Jesus asked this to test Philip, since He knew what He was about to do. Philip did a quick calculation and concluded, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little” (John 6:5-7). Philip may have thought that he was giving a faith-stretching answer, because the disciples clearly did not have 200 denarii to buy bread. But he was limiting God to work through normal human means. But God had a completely different solution, namely, miraculously multiplying the few loaves and fishes they had on hand.
So even if we’ve walked with God for years, when we are faced with a seemingly impossible situation, we need to look to our hearts, which are prone to limit the Almighty by human possibilities. God has given us abundant evidence in Scripture that He is the God of the impossible. Nothing is too difficult for Him. The source of our doubts is not a lack of evidence. It is rather our, sinful hearts.
We don’t know how long Zacharias and Elizabeth had been married, but it easily could have been 30 or 40 years. In that society, being childless was a matter of reproach (1:25). For many of those years, they had entreated God to give them a child and take away their reproach, but God did not answer. Now that they were physically too old to have children, they had come to terms with their disappointment. They had concluded that it must not be God’s will. So when the angel suddenly announced that they would have a child, Zacharias doubted.
You’ve been there, haven’t you? You prayed for something so long and your request was denied for so long that you concluded, “It isn’t going to happen.” Then, maybe even after you stopped praying, suddenly there was a glimmer of hope that your prayers were about to be answered. But you didn’t want to get your hopes up, only to have them dashed again. So you protected yourself by saying, “Let’s wait and see.” But in your heart, you were doubting God.
A humorous story in the Book of Acts shows the early Christians falling into this same error. Herod Agrippa had executed the apostle James and then had arrested Peter, planning to put him to death just after the Passover. No doubt the church had prayed for James to be delivered, but their prayers had not been answered. They were disappointed, but when Peter was imprisoned, they called another prayer meeting. While they were praying, an angel miraculously delivered Peter from his prison cell. He went to where he surmised the church would be gathered, and stood outside knocking on the door. The servant girl recognized Peter’s voice and got so excited that she forgot to let Peter in. She ran in and announced that Peter was at the door. But everyone in the prayer meeting said, “You’re crazy! It must be Peter’s angel.” But Peter continued knocking. When they opened the door, they were amazed (Acts 12:1-17).
Thankfully, God in His grace often pours out His blessings in spite of our doubts! That was the case with Zacharias. God lovingly disciplined His servant, but Zacharias’ doubts could not thwart the sovereign plan of God. Part of the solution to our doubts is to understand the source of them, as I have been explaining. We’re all prone to doubts because of our sinful hearts, often coupled with disappointments and trials. But Luke also wants us to see that …
Darrell Bock comments, “Zechariah, righteous as he is, needs to learn that God will fulfill his promises when he sovereignly chooses to act…. The major lesson … is that God will do what he promises in his own way” (Luke [IVP], p. 37). This is a tricky matter where it’s easy to fall off the horse both ways. On the one hand, some Christians deny God’s sovereignty by making their supposed faith sovereign. They command God around by faith, as if God is under obligation to obey because they barked the orders. Not so! God is sovereign, not the prayers of puny man.
On the other hand, it’s easy to yield to disappointment if God has not answered as we thought He should have, and our disappointment quickly leads us into doubt. The biblical balance is not to waver in unbelief if God doesn’t do something the way we thought He should have. We allow God to be sovereign, but we believe that if He said He would do something, He will do it, even if it takes a different form than we had expected.
Remember, Luke addressed his gospel to a man who was probably a young believer who needed assurance in his faith. The opposite of doubt is not a leap in the dark. The Christian faith is founded on solid historical evidence. Luke wrote to convince Theophilus and his other readers that God was in fact at work in this amazing history of Jesus’ birth and life. He structured these early narratives with this purpose in mind. There are two strands that come together to dispel our doubts by showing that God does what He says He will do.
Luke underscores this point in several ways. First, there is the structure of the first two chapters of his gospel. There is a parallel pattern here of two birth announcements (John the Baptist, 1:5-25; Jesus the Messiah, 1:26-38); a meeting between the two mothers, Mary and Elizabeth, which serves as the link (1:39-56); and, two birth stories (John, 1:57-80; Jesus, 2:1-40). Through this structure, Luke wants us to see that God is clearly at work in the births of these two men. He sovereignly broke into history and announced what He was about to do. Then He proceeded to do it.
This theme is further underscored in the angel’s announcement to Zacharias, where he cites the prophet Malachi’s prediction of the return of Elijah the prophet and says that John will fulfill that prediction. He also predicts a number of other features of John’s life and ministry which did, in fact, later happen. Luke is driving home the point that what God says He will do, He will do.
This is emphasized in one other way that is a bit more obvious in the Greek text than in the English. In verse 18, Zacharias expresses the reason for his doubt by saying, “I am an old man.” It is an emphatic expression, ego eimi in Greek. In verse 19, the angel responds by using the same emphatic expression, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God; and I have been sent to speak to you ...” It’s a deliberate contrast between the feebleness of man’s word and the power of God’s Word. It’s as if Gabriel said, “You may be an old man, unable to father a child, but I am no less than the angel who stands in God’s very presence and comes to speak His word at His command.” Thus, clearly, the word of God overcomes the word of man.
Thus one way we can know that God will do what He says He will do is by observing His prophetic word. There are many prophecies in Scripture that were fulfilled later in Scripture. God spoke, and later God did what He said He would do. That should strengthen our faith. Scripture also contains many prophecies yet to be fulfilled. While some of the details may be fuzzy, the overall scheme is pretty clear, and it’s also clear that in our day it is all lining up just as God has said. The world is set up for a powerful leader to bring the nations together under a one-world government, as Revelation predicts. Through the computer revolution, the mechanism is in place to control all buying and selling by giving each person a mark, as the Bible also predicts. The move toward religious unity and tolerance will culminate in the one-world religion, the whore of Revelation 17. So as we see God’s “prophetic word made more sure” (2 Pet. 1:19), we should put our doubts to rest and trust in the Word of God.
Although our doubts do not keep God from graciously blessing us according to His promise, He does lovingly discipline us in our doubts, that we may share His holiness. So the angel struck Zacharias dumb and, apparently, deaf (see 1:62). By doubting God’s ambassador, he was doubting God Himself. God took that seriously. As a loving Father, He taught His erring child a lesson he would never forget. The angel specifically states Zacharias’ sin: “because you did not believe my words” (1:20). This is further underscored later in the narrative, when Elizabeth exclaims of Mary, “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord” (1:45). That’s Luke’s point: Since God will fulfill His word, we should be believing, like Mary, not unbelieving, like Zacharias.
Zacharias’ chastisement was appropriate for his sin. He shut his mouth in silence when he should have praised God, so he would be silent until the day when his lips were loosed to praise God in front of others (1:67). Doubt has nothing to say; faith opens the heart and lips in praise to God.
Thankfully, doubt need never be fatal. We can recover if we will submit to God’s gracious discipline. During his months of silence, Zacharias submitted to God by meditating on His Word and being thankful for His faithfulness in fulfilling His gracious promises. This is evident from the stream of praise that gushes forth when he finally has his speech restored (1:68-79). It is loaded with references to Scripture and how God has fulfilled His promises. If Zacharias had spent those silent months grumbling about how unfair God was to strike him deaf and dumb, he wouldn’t have erupted in praise as he did.
We should learn from this godly man. When God graciously disciplines us for our doubting hearts, we can either grumble and chafe under it, or we can thankfully submit to His chastening. If, like Zacharias, we submit, we will grow stronger in faith and be filled with joyful, thankful hearts. Thus,
We can overcome the problem of doubt if we will see that God does what He says He will do.
In the matter of faith and doubt, the crucial thing is not our feelings and not even our faith. The crucial thing is the object of our faith. You can have great faith in a faulty airplane, but it will crash in spite of your great faith because it’s not a trustworthy plane. You can have little faith in a sound airplane, just enough to get you on board, and that’s all it takes to get you where you’re going. It’s not your faith, but the object of it, that matters most.
Luke wants us to see that God is faithful to His promises, especially in the matter of sending the Lord Jesus Christ to be the promised Savior. We can trust such a God and such a Savior. He has a proven track record of keeping His word.
The doubts that we all have show us that we need a Savior because we are sinners. Only sinners would doubt the all-powerful, faithful, gracious, sovereign God who has given so many evidences of His trustworthy nature. And the good news of Luke is that it is precisely for sinners that Jesus came to this earth: “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). In your confusion and doubt, call out to Him to save you from your sin. He is mighty to save all who cry out, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” (Luke 18:13).
Copyright 1997, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
A man heard a message on the end times and decided to make all he could before the economy collapsed. He took his life savings, went to the race track, and prayed for wisdom on how to bet. (He hadn’t heard my message on gambling!)
Just before the first race began, the man noticed a Catholic priest who came onto the track, sprinkled some water, waved his arms and made some signs over a horse. The horse won by seven lengths. The same thing happened on the second, third, and fourth races. The man waited one more race, just to make sure. The same thing happened--the horse the priest blessed won. So on the sixth race he waited until the priest did his thing and then he ran off and placed his whole life savings on that horse. The race began. The horse ran fifty feet and fell over dead.
The man was horrified. He ran down to the priest and said, “Priest, I have to talk to you!” “Yes, what is it my son?” “Priest, I watched you; in every race, the horse you blessed won. So I went and bet everything I had on this horse, but it died! What happened?” The priest shook his head sadly and said, “You must be a Protestant.” “Why do you say that?” asked the man. “Because,” said the priest, “you don’t know the difference between a blessing and the last rites.”
That story illustrates that there are some differences between Protestants and Catholics! Our text raises another area of more substantial difference, namely, how we view the virgin Mary. These verses are the basis for the Catholic Ave, Maria, or “Hail, Mary,” a prayer to Mary that is the core of the Rosary. That prayer concludes,
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Our life, our sweetness, and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping, in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us; and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus; O clement; O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
This raises some important questions: Should Christians hail Mary? (To hail means to greet with enthusiastic approval or to summon by calling.) Is she “our life, our sweetness, our hope?” Should we pray to her (or to any saint) or ask her to intercede with Jesus on our behalf? If not, how should we view Mary? Does she deserve a higher status than that of other believers? Our answers to these questions must come from Scripture alone, which is unchanging, not from the traditions of the church, which do change. In light of the strong movement today to drop all denominational barriers and to join together with the Catholic Church as if we were all one, these questions are not merely academic. Let’s look first at what the text tells us of Mary; then at what it says of her Son.
Background: In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s being pregnant with John, the same angel, Gabriel, who had appeared to Zacharias was sent to Mary. Note how God took the initiative in sending His Son and in choosing Mary out of all the other young women in Israel. If we were going to announce the choice of a young woman as the mother of the long-promised Messiah, we would probably do it on prime time TV, with much advertising and hype beforehand. But God did it quietly and without fanfare.
Mary was not living in the center of Jewish culture and religion, Jerusalem, but in the often-despised town of Nazareth in Galilee. God often chooses the foolish things of the world to humble those who are wise in their own sight. Mary was probably a teenager, since Jewish girls in that culture usually married in their teens. The Jewish betrothal lasted about a year and was legally binding, requiring a certificate of divorce to end it. Mary was betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter.
Gabriel greeted her by saying, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you” (1:28). (The King James Version adds, “You are blessed among women,” which probably was inserted by copyists from verse 42, and thus is not supposed to be in verse 28.) The word “hail” is simply the common Greek word used for greeting someone. In Hebrew, it was “Shalom!” The phrase, “favored one,” means that Mary has found grace in God’s sight (1:30; see Gen. 6:8). The emphasis is not on Mary’s merit, but on God’s sovereign choice. God singled out Mary for an important task. The phrase, “The Lord is with you” means, “God will give you His help for the task He has called you to do” (see Judges 6:12).
Mary didn’t seem to be afraid of the angel’s presence, as Zechariah had been (1:12), but she was troubled by his words. I think she was overwhelmed at the implication of what the angel was saying, that God had singled out her–of all people–for a special task. While God noticed Mary, she was humbly unaware of anything special about herself.
The angel went on to explain what was about to happen, that Mary was to conceive and bear a son named, “Yahweh saves” (Jesus, = Joshua, in Hebrew). The angel’s words make it plain that this son will be the promised Messiah, the fulfillment of God’s promises to David centuries before (see 2 Sam. 7:16). Mary didn’t doubt the angel’s words (as Zacharias had, 1:18), but she did ask for clarification. Since she is yet a virgin, and the implication was that this would happen before her betrothal to Joseph was consummated, how would it take place? Gabriel briefly explains the miracle of the virgin birth, which I’ll comment on in a moment.
Then, although Mary did not ask for confirmation, the angel graciously supplied it by telling her that Elizabeth, who had been barren and was now past her childbearing years, had conceived John by God’s power (through union with her husband). Then Gabriel added that great reminder, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Mary’s beautiful response was, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.”
After Gabriel left, Mary quickly went the 80 or so miles to visit her relative, Elizabeth. Probably she wanted to rejoice together with her about what God was doing and to compare notes on their recent experiences. As soon as Mary greeted Elizabeth, John, in Elizabeth’s womb, leaped for joy. Through the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth recognized that Mary was carrying the promised Messiah in her womb and she proceeded to bless Mary for what God was doing through her.
If grace is deserved, it is no longer grace. By definition, grace is God’s undeserved favor. Mary refers to God as her Savior (1:47). Scripture is clear that only sinners need a Savior. Thus Mary is acknowledging her own need for God’s grace and salvation. John Calvin points out that if Mary had to receive grace from God just as we do, then it is absurd to seek grace from her, as if she can somehow bestow it (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], 1:33). Mary is not a dispenser of grace to others, but a recipient of it herself.
The Bible is abundantly clear that no one is saved by his or her own merit or good works, but only by the merit of Jesus Christ and His death on the cross on their behalf (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:4-7). That was true of Mary; it is true of every other person since Adam and Eve fell into sin, except Jesus Christ alone. The Catholic Church teaches that in order for Jesus to be born sinless, Mary had to be born without sin. In the 1850’s Pope Pius IX declared as dogma (which every Catholic must believe) that Mary was immaculately conceived or born without original sin (Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast [Harvest House], p. 443). The fallacy of that dogma (apart from the fact that the Bible never teaches it) is, Mary’s parents would have had to be sinlessly conceived for Mary to have escaped their sin, and so on all the way back to Adam. Without stating the method, the angel simply affirms that through the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary’s offspring would be preserved from sin through the virgin birth or conception (1:35).
The lesson for us is that if Mary, who was obviously a godly young woman, needed God’s grace, how much more do we! But the way we receive God’s grace is not through Mary, but only through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is offered freely as the Savior of sinners who trust in Him (John 3:16).
Unlike Zacharias, Mary did not seem to be troubled by the angel’s sudden presence, but rather by his words. Calvin (p. 34) states, “It instantly occurred to her that the angel had not been sent for a trifling purpose.” Mary took seriously this word to her from God. When the angel greeted her, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you,” she didn’t flippantly reply, “Cool!” She was troubled by what it meant and pondered it seriously.
This tells me that teenagers can and should be serious about the things of God. The prevailing theory in youth ministry today is that you’ve got to entertain kids with funny skits and speakers who are comedians. Only in that context can you occasionally slip in any teaching about God. I’m not against wholesome fun or humor. But at the same time, we don’t need to go with the cultural flow. Young people can have a heart for the things of God.
Although she was astonished and puzzled by the angel’s words, so that she asked for clarification (1:34), she did not doubt. As Elizabeth affirms through the Holy Spirit (1:45), “blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”
The lesson for us is clear: If God has spoken clearly through His Word, we must believe it without wavering. We may need to study it further to make sure we understand it properly. We may need to acknowledge that we do not understand all the depths of it, as Mary probably never fully understood the miracle of how God could take on human flesh through the virgin birth. But the angel’s word in verse 37 is always true: “For nothing will be impossible with God.” If we believe in God, we believe in the possibility of miracles.
It’s interesting that Zacharias asked for a sign, but was disciplined for his doubting. Mary believed and did not ask for a sign, but she was graciously given one anyway (the word about Elizabeth). Often if we believe we are given more confirming evidence; if we doubt, we are not given any confirmation, because our hearts are not right before God.
By saying, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word” (1:38), Mary opened herself up to many trials. Her fiancé heard of her pregnancy and decided that he would have to divorce her (Matt. 1:19). Her friends would have shunned her and her family may have disowned her. She would have been publicly shamed and rejected for the rest of her life. But in spite of all the potential hardship, Mary obediently submitted to God’s will for her life. As a result, she was greatly blessed with this unique role in all of history, to be the mother of the Savior.
Often, submitting to God’s will is not the easiest way to go. It may involve giving up the desire for popularity or worldly success. It may mean leaving family or friends to go to the mission field. In some cases, it means giving up the potential for marriage and family in order to serve God. But whatever hardship we endure in obedience to God, He will richly repay. Because Mary obeyed God, she was blessed among women.
Conclusions about Mary: The Pope prays to Mary, that she will “comfort, guide, strengthen, and protect the whole of humanity” and that she would “obtain for us the grace of eternal salvation” (Dave Hunt, p. 445). A popular tract, “The Rosary, Your Key to Heaven,” declares,
The Rosary is a means of salvation, because a true child of Mary is never lost and one who says the Rosary daily is truly Mary’s child…. Mary is our all-powerful Advocate and she can obtain from the Heart of her Divine Son whatever is good for her children…. No one is beyond redemption if he but turns to Mary Immaculate. (Cited by Hunt, pp. 446-447.)
Dave Hunt (p. 447, italics his) comments,
Though the Bible never hints at such a thing, and though Paul never preached it or told it to anyone, yet for the Catholic, Mary has become the essential conduit through which salvation and all grace flows. Jesus and God the Father play an important role too, but it is Mary who brings everything together and dispenses all God’s gifts to those who through devotion to her become “her children.”
Our text and the whole Bible make it clear that Mary is not to be elevated above any other believer. Yet at the same time, we should not react to Catholicism’s veneration of Mary by neglecting to learn from her. As a godly woman who trusted and obeyed God, she has much to teach us. But we can learn even more by looking at Mary’s Son:
Background: Gabriel told Mary that she would conceive in her womb, and bear a son, and that she should name Him Jesus (1:31). Furthermore, “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end” (1:32-33). And, Jesus is called Mary’s “holy offspring,” “the Son of God” (1:35). Elizabeth refers to Mary’s child as her Lord (1:43), which implies His superiority to her offspring, John the Baptist. There is enough here for a series of sermons, but I can only make some brief observations:
Walter Liefeld states, “Luke presents the theology of the Incarnation in a way so holy and congruent with OT sacred history that any comparisons with pagan mythology seem utterly incongruous” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Zondervan], 8:829). While the virgin birth (or conception) is clearly a miracle, there is no hint of God cohabiting with Mary. Rather, the Holy Spirit would “overshadow” her. It is the same word used for the glory of God resting upon the tabernacle (Exod. 40:35), and for the cloud overshadowing the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:34). While there is a mystery here, the sense is that the awesome presence of the Holy Spirit would envelope Mary and miraculously cause her to conceive the Lord Jesus, who is eternally God and yet, from conception in Mary’s womb, fully human. Jesus had a human mother, but no human father. He is unique in all history in that He is undiminished deity and perfect humanity united in one person.
As I already mentioned, the angel states that Mary’s offspring would be holy (1:35). Calvin (pp. 43-44) explains, “Though Christ was formed of the seed of Abraham, yet he contracted no defilement from a sinful nature; for the Spirit of God kept him pure from the very commencement: and this was done not merely that he might abound in personal holiness, but chiefly that he might sanctify his own people. The manner of conception, therefore, assures us that we have a Mediator separate from sinners, (Heb. 7:26).”
Neither Mary nor Elizabeth fully understood Jesus’ deity at this early point in time. Luke builds his Christology from the ground up, letting it unfold as the story makes it more clear. But the things revealed at this point fully allow for the further revelation. Elizabeth refers to Mary as “the mother of my Lord” (1:43). By “Lord” she probably was referring to Jesus as the Messiah, and she probably did not realize that Messiah had to be divine. But it later becomes clear that He is not just a human descendent of David and of Mary, but also fully divine.
The Savior had to be fully human, yet without sin of His own, to bear the sins of the human race. But He also had to be fully God so that His sacrifice had infinite merit before God. We must affirm both Jesus’ humanity and His deity. Thus we must affirm His virgin birth.
Gabriel’s description of Jesus shows that He alone is to be worshiped because He alone is God in human flesh. The angel said, “He shall be great” (1:32). While the angel said of John the Baptist that “he will be great in the sight of the Lord” (1:15), of Jesus he said, “He shall be great,” and added, “and will be called the Son of the Most High.” Hebrews 1:5 states, “For to which of the angels did He ever say, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten you’?” Jesus is uniquely God’s only begotten Son.
Jesus later said that John the Baptist was the greatest person ever born naturally on this earth (Matt. 11:11). That means that John was greater than Mary. But John himself acknowledged of Jesus, He is “mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals” (Luke 3:16). John also testified, “After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me” (John 1:30). Remember, John was born six months before Jesus, yet he acknowledged that Jesus existed before him. No wonder John exclaimed, “This is the Son of God” (John 1:34). “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Any elevation of Mary that puts her on the same plane as Jesus is utter blasphemy! Jesus alone is the uniquely great Savior and Son of God.
Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to David a thousand years before, that one of his descendents would reign on his throne forever (2 Sam. 7:12-14). Although there is controversy among godly scholars over this point, it seems clear to me that the kingdom in Luke’s thinking has both present (Luke 11:20; 17:21) and future (Luke 13:28; 19:11; Acts 1:6, 11; 14:22) aspects. He is king over His people right now. But, also, I take the words at face value to mean that when Jesus returns, He will literally reign over Israel, as well as the whole earth, in His millennial kingdom.
But whatever one’s views of prophecy, every godly scholar agrees that the day is soon coming when every knee shall bow before Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords. You can either bow voluntarily now, or be forced to bow later. Jesus made it clear that on that terrible day of judgment, the King will say to those who have not submitted to Him, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). Clearly, now is the time to trust in and submit to Jesus as Savior and Lord!
The bottom line for us concerning the relationship of Mary and Jesus is:
While we should imitate Mary’s faith and submission to God, we should trust in and submit to Jesus as Savior and Lord.
On March 23, 1743, when Handel’s “Messiah” was first performed in London, the king was present in the audience. When the performance got to the moving “Hallelujah Chorus,” with its words, “For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth,” the whole audience, including the king, sprang to its feet, and remained standing through the entire chorus. From that time, it became a custom to stand during that chorus whenever it is performed.
But the custom of the British monarch standing changed over time. About 100 years later, when Queen Victoria had just ascended the throne, she went to hear “The Messiah.” Those in her court who knew protocol had instructed her that she must not rise when others stood at the singing of the “Hallelujah Chorus.” So, as the singers were exclaiming, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! For the Lord our God omnipotent reigneth,” Victoria remained seated--but with great difficulty.
Finally, they came to that part of the chorus where they proclaim Christ King of kings and Lord of lords. Victoria could stay seated no longer. She rose and stood reverently with her head bowed before the Lord who alone is great.
Was Mary great? Yes, as far as those who need a Savior go, she was great for her humble submission to the will of God. In that we should imitate her. But Mary herself would be quick to acknowledge that in the true sense, only God is great. By the miracle and mystery of the virgin birth, Mary’s Son was the eternal God in human flesh. “O come let us adore Him!”
Copyright 1997, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
John Calvin begins his classic Institutes of the Christian Religion with this profound sentence: “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves” (Westminster Press, 1.1.1.).
The late Martyn Lloyd-Jones often argued that one of the main indictments of the modern evangelical church is that we do not know God. Not knowing God as we ought, we do not know ourselves as we ought, and as a result we are focused on ourselves and our own happiness, rather than on the glory of God (see, for example, his Revival [Crossway Books], chapters 7 & 15). But Scripture always promises happiness as the by-product that God graciously gives to those who know Him and seek His glory.
Today we are going to be instructed by a teenage Jewish girl who, it seems, knew God far better than most of us do. Our text is the hymn of praise that Mary spoke in response to Elizabeth’s recognition through the Holy Spirit that Mary was carrying the promised Messiah in her womb. In this hymn, Mary extols God for His covenant mercy and for His righteous judgments. Although she was probably only 15 or 16 years old when she spoke these words, Mary had a deep understanding of God and His mercy. If you do not know God and His gracious salvation through Jesus Christ, I encourage you to listen carefully, so that you may come to know Him. If you do know God and His salvation, the lesson is:
We who have received God’s salvation should glorify Him for His mercy and judgment.
As I explained in our last study, the Roman Catholic Church has erred greatly in its teaching about the virgin Mary. The Bible is clear that she was not immaculately conceived, she is not the “Queen of Heaven,” she is not our life, our sweetness, nor our hope. We are not to pray to her as our advocate. She cannot obtain or impart salvation to anyone, no matter how faithfully they pray the Rosary. The Bible is clear that Mary is not to be elevated above any other believer. But at the same time, we should not react to Catholicism’s erroneous veneration of Mary by neglecting to learn from her. This beautiful hymn has much to teach us.
Mary’s hymn is brimming with information about the attributes of God. But it is not cold, academic information. Mary is extolling God as she considers what He has done in choosing her to be the mother of the Savior. She calls Him “God my Savior” (1:47), which implies that Mary knew she was a sinner; none but sinners need a Savior. Implicit in the term “Savior” is the fact that we are lost and alienated from God because of our sin. As those who are lost, we don’t just need a little boost from God to set things right. We don’t just need a few tips on how to get our lives in order, how to polish our self-esteem, how to succeed in our families or businesses. Savior is a radical term that implies that we are helplessly, hopelessly lost unless God in His mighty power intervenes to rescue us.
God’s power is explicitly stated in Mary’s referring to Him as the “Mighty One who has done great things for me” (1:49). She adds, “He has done mighty deeds with His arm” (1:51). The psalmist declares that the heavens are the work of God’s finger (Ps. 8:3; see also Exod. 8:19). When God parted the Red Sea for Israel and brought it down on the Egyptian army, the people sang that it was due to God’s right hand, which is majestic in power (Exod. 15:6). But here Mary declares that God’s sending the Savior and scattering His enemies in judgment is due to His arm. As Isaiah 59:16 proclaims, God’s “own arm brought salvation to Him.” Calvin explains Mary’s meaning: “God rested satisfied with his own power, employed no companions in the work, called none to afford him aid” (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], 16:58). In other words, salvation is solely God’s work, not at all from man. God does everything, we can do nothing except receive His gracious gift.
Mary further teaches that God’s name is holy (1:49). His name refers to His person, the sum of His attributes. To be holy means to be set apart. In this context, it refers not only to God’s absolute moral righteousness, but also to His being set apart as the only sovereign authority over people (Darrell Bock, Luke [Baker], 1:152). Thus He is to be held in highest esteem and to be feared.
Thankfully, Mary does not leave us with just these attributes of God, or we would not dare to approach Him! She goes on to emphasize God’s great mercy (1:50, 54). God’s mercy and His grace are close in meaning, both emphasizing His undeserved favor. But mercy has the connotation of God’s compassion due to our miserable condition. When Mary speaks of God’s mercy on those who fear Him, we should not conclude that somehow their reverence earned them God’s favor. His mercy is always unmerited in the sense that it flows totally from His great love and not at all because of anything worthy in the creature. But when God bestows His mercy, those who have received it respond with grateful reverence to Him.
In addition to His mercy, Mary adds that God is the giver of good things (1:53). As James 1:17 reminds us, “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.” Jesus taught that even earthly fathers, though evil, know how to give good gifts to their children. How much more will not the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to His children who ask Him (Luke 11:13)? In line with this, Mary shows that God is faithful to His covenant promises (1:54, 55). Even though 2,000 years had elapsed since God’s promises to Abraham, God had not forgotten. What God has promised, He will fulfill in His time.
In giving instruction on how we can magnify the Lord, Charles Spurgeon encourages us to ponder the attributes of God:
Begin with his mercy if you cannot begin with his holiness; but take the attributes one by one, and think about them. I do not know a single attribute of God which is not wonderfully quickening and powerful to a true Christian. As you think of any one of them, it will ravish you, and carry you quite away. You will be lost in wonder, love, and praise as you consider it; you will be astonished and amazed as you plunge into its wondrous depths, and everything else will vanish from your vision (Spurgeon’s Expository Encyclopedia [Baker], 12:124-125).
Thus Mary teaches us about the nature of God. Also,
Understanding God’s mercy and grace is fundamental to a relationship with Him. We are saved by God’s grace through faith (Eph. 2:8, 9). As we received Christ Jesus the Lord, so we are to walk in Him (Col. 2:6). His mercy and grace should permeate our daily walk with Him. Note three things about God’s mercy:
God’s mercy is a sovereign mercy. Mary mentions God’s mercy to Abraham and his offspring (1:55). There is only one reason given in Scripture that Abraham became the father of our faith: God sovereignly chose him. Abraham was a pagan man from an idolatrous family in a pagan land when God called him (Josh. 24:2). Why didn’t God call Abraham’s father or brothers? Why not people already living in the land of Canaan? Why did God choose the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob to be His people? Why not Ishmael? Why not Esau? Why not the Egyptians or Russians or Europeans or Indians or Chinese? We don’t know why. All we know is that God chose Israel because of His sovereign purpose. Moses tells them it was not because they were greater in number or more righteous than any other nation; it was simply God’s sovereign love toward them (Deut. 4:37; 7:7; 9:4; 10:15).
Many do not like the doctrine of God’s sovereign election. They want to glory in their choice of God. It’s true that God does not save anyone apart from their choice of Jesus as Savior and Lord. But it’s also true that no one would choose Jesus unless God had first graciously done a work of sovereign grace to make him willing (John 6:44, 65). God states plainly, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” Paul explains, “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Rom. 9:15, 16). This means that God alone is to be glorified in our salvation.
God’s mercy is a covenant mercy. God made a covenant with Abraham and repeatedly reminded him and his descendants of that covenant as the basis of His dealings with them. God’s covenant assures us that though we may waver, God will not renege on His covenant of grace. If He has begun a gracious work in you, you can be assured that He will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:6), not because of your performance, but because of the word of His gracious covenant in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God’s mercy is a benevolent mercy. “He has filled the hungry with good things” (1:53). God is a loving Father who will tenderly do that which is good for His children all the days of their lives. Though we often face difficult trials, and even death, we can know that the Good Shepherd is with us even in the valley of the shadow of death. He has prepared a place for us in heaven where “He shall wipe away every tear from [our] eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain” (Rev. 21:4). Hallelujah!
When we contemplate the nature of our God and His great mercy towards us in Christ, we will join Mary’s song, “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.”
But, perhaps you’re wondering, “How can we know that we are the objects of God’s great mercy? Mary shows us,
Mary mentions a number of characteristics of those who are the recipients of God’s great mercy.
Mary calls God “my Savior” (1:47); it’s very personal. Mary was from a Jewish home; the Jews were God’s chosen people. She easily could have thought, “We’re good Jewish people. We keep the feasts and follow the commandments. That’s all I need.” But even though she was a moral young woman from a good family, she knew, even as a teenager, that she needed a Savior. She had personally trusted in God and His Messiah as her Savior.
It’s not enough to know God as your parents’ Savior. It’s certainly not enough to belong to your parents’ church. Christ must be your Savior. That means that you see yourself as a sinner who has broken God’s holy law. You stand guilty and condemned before the bench of His righteous justice. There is nothing you can do to deliver yourself. All you can do is cast yourself on His mercy. That is precisely what you must do. When you do that, you will find that God will become your Savior. It was the man who cried out, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” who went down to his house justified before God (Luke 18:13).
Mary’s hymn of praise is shot through with Scripture. It is similar in many ways to Hannah’s song of praise (1 Sam. 2:1-10), but there are many other similarities to the Psalms and other portions of the Old Testament. Although she was a young girl in a culture that tended to restrict training in the Scriptures to boys, Mary knew the Bible. We’ve already seen that she knew a great deal about God’s attributes and mercy. She knew what God had done in the history of His people, and what He had promised to do in sending His Messiah.
Peter exhorts us, like newborn babes, to long for the pure milk of the Word that we may grow in respect to salvation, if we have tasted the kindness of the Lord (1 Pet. 2:2, 3). I gained new insight into that verse when I was a young father. I made the mistake of taking our newborn into my arms when I was not wearing a shirt. She saw my nipple, and even though it was surrounded with hair, it looked good enough. She latched onto me, thinking that she would get the milk she craved. I discovered that a newborn goes after her mother’s milk with a vengeance! Have you tasted the Lord’s kindness? There’s a lot more to be had in His Word.
I’m not convinced that there is any specialized distinction between “soul” and “spirit” (1:46, 47). What Mary means is that from the depths of her innermost being, she was exulting in God. She was worshiping God in truth, since her words came right out of Scripture. But she was also worshiping Him in spirit, since her praise came out of her heart. Her emotions were involved, so that her entire being was caught up with the wonder and majesty of God and His grace to her. She expressed it in this song.
It’s no accident that the longest book of the Bible is a song book (Psalms). God loves to hear the praises of His people. He wants us filled with joy as we think about what He has done for us. If you don’t sing, you’d better learn, because in heaven the saints gather before the throne and sing, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing” (Rev. 5:12). The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Those who have received His mercy will be filled with praise and joy.
We’ve already seen Mary’s big view of God. But note also that she refers to “the humble state of His bondslave” (1:48); and she mentions that God has “exalted those who were humble” (1:52). The word means “lowly.” She also states that those who have received God’s mercy fear Him (1:50). It is the uniform experience of those who have encountered the living God that they are awed by the greatness of His splendor and terrified because of their own puniness and sinfulness in His holy light.
A popular author, who travels around the world putting on seminars and who teaches in a major evangelical seminary, states that we should not see ourselves as sinners, not even as sinners saved by grace, but rather as saints who occasionally sin (Neil Anderson, Victory Over the Darkness [Regal Books], pp. 44-45). I submit that he does not know God or his Bible. It is the uniform experience both of God’s saints in the Bible and of those who have walked with Him in church history, that the closer they draw to God, the more they despise themselves as insignificant, unworthy sinners. As Calvin explains in the Institutes (1.1.2),
It is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself. For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy—this pride is innate in all of us—unless by clear proofs we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness, foulness, folly, and impurity. Moreover, we are not thus convinced if we look merely to ourselves and not also to the Lord, who is the sole standard by which this judgment must be measured.
The more we see how great God is, the more we will sense our own sinfulness, which will lead us to magnify all the more His abundant mercy toward us in Christ.
“He has filled the hungry with good things” (1:53). This refers primarily to spiritual, not physical, hunger. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matt. 5:6). Yes, they will be satisfied in God and His abundant grace, yet at the same time, they will still hunger and thirst for more of Him.
But note: the prerequisite for being filled is to be hungry. If you are filled with your own self-righteousness, you are not spiritually hungry. If you think that you’re a basically good person, and that it might be nice to sample a bit of God, that He might help you round out your life, you are not hungry. Hungry people are not cool, confident, have-it-mostly-together sort of people. Hungry people are desperate. They know they will perish if they do not find food soon. It is those who recognize their desperate spiritual condition and cry out, “Save me, Lord, or I perish,” whom God fills. He gives them “good things,” every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:3). Thus they are satisfied and yet they always long for more of Him.
It would be great if everyone acknowledged his need of God’s salvation and experienced His mercy, as Mary did. But her song makes it clear that some refuse God’s mercy and come under His judgment. To make sure that we are not such, we must look at …
Mary describes these as “proud in the thoughts of their heart” (1:51). Pride is the original sin that brought Satan down. He appealed to Eve’s pride, that she could be like God, and she fell. The Bible declares, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). It’s a serious thing to have God opposed to you! We must join hymn-writer Isaac Watts, who says that looking on the cross where the Prince of Glory died causes him to pour contempt on all his pride.
Not only are those under God’s judgment proud, they are powerful in themselves, but not in God’s sight. They are “rulers” whom He has brought down from their thrones (1:52). Like Nebuchadnezzar, they do not realize that it is God who is “the ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes” (Dan. 4:17, 25).
Finally, those under God’s judgment are plentiful in worldly goods, but poor before God (1:53, “rich”; see Luke 12:21). The one who is the object of God’s mercy may be blessed with material goods, but he is deeply aware that he is a steward who will give an account to God. But those under God’s judgment disregard the Lord and squander their wealth on their own pleasure, with no thought for the poor or for God’s purpose.
Note God’s condemnation on these people: God scatters the proud (1:51), brings down the rulers (1:52) and sends the rich away empty-handed (1:53). What frightening words! God does not just neglect or ignore such people. He actively scatters them, brings them down and sends them away empty-handed! You may say, “Why does God do this? Doesn’t He desire that all people be saved?” Yes, He has made provision for all who will come, but they must come on His terms, not theirs.
An article in Newsweek a few years ago (12/17/90) on the baby-boomers who are coming back into the church reported how they were religious consumers, picking and choosing what they want from a church that offers the services they’re looking for. It stated, “They don’t convert—they choose.” Sadly, many churches are catering to the consumer, offering seeker-friendly services.
I hate to break it to you, but God isn’t operating a religious department store! You come to Him His way, as a guilty sinner needing a Savior, or not at all. God doesn’t negotiate a deal. If you repent of your pride and selfishness and sin, and come to the cross, He will pour out His abundant mercy on you. If you cling to your own righteousness and self-esteem and sufficiency, God will send you away empty. And if God sends you away empty, you are empty in the absolute sense of that word! You have nothing to look forward to in eternity but the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
D. L. Moody said, “Christ sends none away empty but those who are full of themselves.” The church at Laodicea professed to be a Christian church. Things seemed to be going fairly well in that church, from their perspective. They said, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” God’s perspective was a bit different: “You do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” (Rev. 3:17). The Lord told them to repent. He said to that church, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20).
The offer still stands. If you will repent of your sin and cry out to Jesus Christ to save you, God will graciously pour out His mercy on you. Then you will be able to sing Mary’s song, “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.”
© Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Suppose that you had just visited Niagara Falls. You marveled at the massive power of all that water gushing over the falls. So you decided to see what the river looked like about a mile upstream. As you’re there, you see a guy in a rowboat, floating downstream toward the falls, oblivious to any danger. You yell at him, but he seems to be deaf. You jump up and down, waving your arms. He finally sees you and waves back, a smile on his face.
If there was a speedboat moored nearby, you could jump in and race out to where he was and throw him a lifeline. But he may not even take it, because obviously, he is not aware that he is in any danger. He’s just cruising down the river, and to take your lifeline would interrupt his leisurely cruise.
The guy in the rowboat represents many in our culture today. Many of them are in church on a given Sunday. They’re cruising down the river of life, fairly contented with how things are going. But they’re oblivious to the fact that God’s terrible judgment lies just ahead. Or, if they think about it, they surmise that it only applies to people who aren’t in a good boat like they’re in. They’re in the rowboat of their own good deeds, and they figure that it will carry them through what they think may be a few ripples of the judgment. But they have no idea of the terrible wrath of God upon sinners, and they don’t see themselves as sinners. So any warnings you shout to them, or any efforts to throw them the lifeline of salvation, are ignored. They don’t see their desperate need of salvation, and so they don’t respond with gratitude and relief to the tender mercy of God in sending the Savior.
Zacharias could easily have been the man in the rowboat. He was a faithful Jewish man who performed his duty as a priest. He and his wife kept the Lord’s commandments and ordinances (Luke 1:6). He wasn’t a godless man, like the pagan Romans who occupied the Jewish homeland. He wasn’t a religious hypocrite, like the profane Herod who reigned over the land. Zacharias easily could have thought of himself as a man who was secure in the rowboat of his own good works, with nothing to fear from God’s judgment.
But, thankfully, Zacharias did not see himself that way. He knew that the falls were rapidly approaching, and he saw himself as helplessly drifting toward them with increasing speed. And so, when God revealed to him that he would have a son who would be the forerunner of the Savior, Zacharias broke forth in this beautiful psalm of praise to God for His great mercy in sending the Savior who had been promised to the fathers centuries before.
You’ll recall that although he was a godly man, Zacharias had doubted the word of the angel that he and his wife would have a son. To discipline him, the Lord had caused Zacharias to be deaf and dumb for at least nine months. But the promised son had been born, and at his circumcision, family and friends gathered, assuming that they would name the boy Zacharias, or at least after another relative. But when Zacharias wrote on the tablet in obedience to God’s command, “His name is John,” his tongue was loosed and he broke forth in this torrent of praise to God for His great salvation.
Salvation is the theme of Zacharias’ prophecy: He mentions “redemption” (1:68); “salvation” (1:69, 71, 77); and, “being delivered” (1:74). The main message of these profound verses, is …
The tender mercy of our God moves Him to provide salvation for those who are in desperate straits.
I want to develop five themes related to salvation:
Zacharias states that God has “accomplished redemption for His people” (1:68). Whereas nine months earlier Zacharias had doubted the word of God, now he believes so strongly that he speaks of a future event as if God has already done it. The word “redemption” implies that those being redeemed are in bondage. Slaves need redemption, not free people. God’s salvation comes to those who know that they are enslaved by sin.
This is further underscored twice by stating that God is saving His people from the hand of their enemies who hate them (1:71, 74). While this salvation obviously has a national political aspect to it, which will be fulfilled when Christ comes the second time to deliver Israel from her enemies and establish His millennial kingdom, it also has a personal spiritual reference (1:77, “forgiveness of sins”). As the apostle Paul reminds us, we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against the powerful spiritual forces of evil (Eph. 6:10-12). Satan and his forces are behind both the political enemies of God’s people and their spiritual bondage before they are saved. As Paul also states, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4). But the point is, those who need God’s deliverance are in desperate straits—in bondage to sin, oppressed by Satan—and they know it.
Their desperate condition is further described as “those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death” (1:79). The picture is of travelers who have lost their way in the wilderness and are overtaken by night. They grope for the path, but it eludes them. Finally, in despair, they can do nothing but sit down in the darkness, where death from wild beasts lurks in the shadows, and hope for the morning light. They can’t sleep because they are too cold and too afraid. Every time a wolf howls in the darkness, they shudder.
It’s a graphic picture of those who sit in the darkness and shadow of death that comes from sin. They are lost in the darkness, not knowing which way to go. They are afraid of death that lurks in the shadows. They are in a desperate situation.
The common element with each of these metaphors is that those in these desperate straits know that they need God’s deliverance. They know that they’re in bondage and that their enemies are too strong for them. They know that they’re lost in darkness and the shadow of death. If morning doesn’t dawn soon, they will die. They also know that the deliverance they need is far beyond their own ability to accomplish. If God doesn’t break into their situation, they’re doomed. Even Zacharias, who is described as a righteous and blameless man (1:6), knew that he desperately needed God’s salvation.
One evidence that God is about to accomplish His redemption for you is that the Holy Spirit has opened your eyes to the guilt of your sin. You formerly were blinded to your sin and need of a Savior, but now you realize that you are in bondage to sin, and you long for deliverance. You realize that you cannot deliver yourself. Like that rowboat heading for Niagara Falls, all of your good works could never deliver you in the day of God’s righteous judgment. If you see the desperate straits you’re in, it’s evidence that the Sunshine from on high is about to rise on your needy situation. There is good news for you.
If it were up to us to save ourselves, we all would be doomed. But, thankfully, it’s not up to us. Salvation is of the Lord. This comes through strongly in these verses. Note first that the Lord God “visited us” (1:68, 78). We did not go searching for Him; He came and visited us. He saw our helpless condition, took pity on us, and came down to meet our enormous need in the person of the Savior.
This prophecy is steeped in the Old Testament. The theme of God visiting His people comes from Genesis 50:24, 25. As Joseph was dying in Egypt, he predicted that God would visit his descendants and bring them from there to the land that He had promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the Septuagint, the Greek uses an emphatic Hebraism, “in visiting, God will visit you,” which means, “God will surely visit you.” Then Joseph repeats, “At the visitation with which God shall visit you, then you shall carry my bones with you.” After an interval of 400 years of slavery in Egypt, we read of God telling Moses (Exod. 3:16): “Visiting, I have visited you” (see also, Exod. 4:31).
Even so, in Zacharias’ time, Israel had not heard a word from the Lord in 400 years. The nation was now under the Roman yoke of oppression. It seemed as if God had forgotten His people. But then, after the birth of the forerunner of Messiah, and knowing the angel’s promise to Mary that she would bear the Son of God, Zacharias prophesies, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people.”
If you were living in abject poverty and one day a kind billionaire visited you, you might have a ray of hope that he would take pity on you and give you some help. But God has done more than that. He not only saw our desperate condition and sent us help; He actually took our human condition on Himself! He took on human flesh, not as a mighty king, above our weaknesses, but as a baby, subject to our frailty, yet without sin. As if that were not enough, He even took our sin on Himself on the cross, bearing the penalty we deserve! It was all God’s doing because of His tender mercy (1:78), not because we deserved it. God visited us in the birth of Jesus Christ.
There are many other evidences in our text that salvation is God’s doing, not our doing. He accomplished it (1:68). “He raised up a horn of salvation for us” (1:69). The horn is a symbol of the strength of an animal, such as a bull (Ps. 132:17; 18:2). Here it points to the fact that salvation required God’s mighty power because our enemy is so strong. But God did it--He raised it up. He did it in fulfillment of many prophecies that He had given centuries before (1:70-71). Alfred Edersheim found more than 400 Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, but even apart from these specific prophecies, the whole of the Old Testament points to Christ (cited by Norval Geldenhuys, Luke [Eerdmans], pp. 93-94).
Furthermore, God sent the Savior in accordance with the oath of His covenant with Abraham (1:72-73). Two thousand years before Jesus Christ was born, God sovereignly chose Abraham, a pagan from Ur of the Chaldeans, and promised to make a great nation of him, to give his descendants the land of Canaan, and to bless all the families of the earth through him (Gen. 12:1-3). Jesus Christ was the descendant of Abraham in whom God’s promises were fulfilled.
God also raised up John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, in accordance with prophecies made hundreds of years before. In Isaiah 40:3 and Malachi 3:1; 4:5, God predicted that He would send His messenger in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way before Him. Even though Zacharias and Elizabeth were humanly beyond their childbearing years, God sent His angel to promise that they would have this son who would fulfill these prophecies by making “ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17).
The point is that God did all this apart from human initiative, effort, merit, or ability. God planned it, He prophesied it, and He carried it out, in spite of Zacharias’ doubts and inability to father a son. The salvation God provided in Jesus Christ comes totally from Him. We cannot do anything to earn it or work for it. All we can do is receive it.
In addition to all of these proofs that salvation is God’s doing, not ours, there is also the theme of God’s great mercy that permeates Luke 1 (see vv. 50, 54, 58, 72, 78). As we saw last week, God’s mercy and His grace are somewhat synonymous, meaning His undeserved favor, but His mercy has the added connotation of His compassion on those who are in great misery. God’s mercy is an overwhelming concept, but when the Holy Spirit speaking through Zacharias adds, “the tender mercy of our God” (1:78), it sounds almost too good to be true!
We’ve just seen that His salvation is not for people who have it pretty much together. They are in bondage to sin, oppressed by Satan, sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. It would seem reasonable for God to say, “Make some efforts at self-improvement, and maybe then we can talk about salvation.” But, no, the tender mercy of our God means, as Paul puts it, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5: 6, 8).
This runs counter to the commonly held notion that we can save ourselves by our own effort or ability. It goes against the idea that we are worthy to be saved. No! Salvation is from God, apart from human merit, that no one can boast. If you think you can do something to save yourself or to provide for your own salvation, you have too high a view of yourself. Salvation is for those who know that they are in desperate straits. It is God’s doing, not ours.
Though Jesus’ name is not mentioned specifically in Zacharias’ prophecy, His person is described so that there is no mistaking it. This horn of salvation is from “the house of David” (1:69). Zacharias and Elizabeth were both descended from Aaron who was from the tribe of Levi (Luke 1:5), but Jesus was descended from the tribe of Judah through David (Matt. 1:2-17; Luke 3:23-38). Jesus Himself affirmed that He is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham (John 8:56-58).
Also, the coming Savior was none other than God in human flesh. John went “before the Lord to prepare His ways” (1:76). The Lord (who is God) is Jesus. That John recognized the divinity of Jesus was obvious when he said that he was not even worthy to untie the thong of His sandals. John affirmed that Jesus had a higher rank than him because He existed before him, even though physically John was six months older than Jesus (John 1:27, 30).
Zacharias refers to this Savior as “the Sunrise from on high” (Luke 1:78), a reference to Malachi 4:2: “The sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.” Jesus Himself claimed, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). Clearly, Jesus Christ is the Savior of whom Zacharias and all Scripture prophesied. “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). God’s salvation is in Jesus Christ alone.
Thus, salvation comes to those who know they are in desperate straits. It is God’s doing, not ours. It is accomplished through the Lord Jesus Christ.
As I mentioned, there will be a national deliverance of the nation Israel from her enemies when Jesus Christ returns and crushes the nations opposed to His chosen people. But, as verse 77 states, salvation is also personal. It consists in the forgiveness of our sins. The Jewish religious leaders were looking for a political Messiah who would deliver Israel from Rome. They thought that everything would be fine if such a leader would come on the scene. But John the Baptist confronted them with their personal sins and need of personal salvation: “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Luke 3:7, 8).
We all like to think in terms of political solutions to the problems that our society faces. If the government would just get it together, our problems would be solved and life would be peaceful. But God’s salvation goes deeper than that. It confronts the individual with his or her sin by saying, “The problem isn’t just out there with the government. The problem is in your heart. You have sinned against a holy God, and there will be no true and lasting peace until you have the peace in your heart of knowing that your sins are forgiven.”
Only God can forgive sins and He does not do it arbitrarily, but in accordance with His perfect justice and righteousness. The penalty for sins must be paid or God is not just in forgiving them. On the cross, Jesus Christ offered Himself as the ransom for sinners. Since He was man and lived perfectly in obedience to God’s law as a man, His sacrifice had merit for the human race. Since He was God in human flesh, His sacrifice had merit before the throne of God’s perfect justice. The sinner who trusts in Jesus’ death on his behalf can be assured that God is propitiated or satisfied. Why did God send His Son as the sacrifice for sinners? Because of His tender mercy! “Amazing love! How can it be, that Thou my God shouldst die for me!” (Charles Wesley).
Zacharias says that we, “being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days” (1:74-75). Contrary to popular opinion, God does not save us primarily so that we will be happy. The Christian life is a blessedly happy life, full of joy and gladness. But that is a by-product, not the chief focus. God saves us so that we might glorify Him (make Him look good) through a life of holy service. People who think they’re saved but who live for themselves and their own happiness are deceived. True salvation always results in a life of growing holiness given over to serving the gracious God who has granted deliverance from the bondage of sin.
Years ago a Salvation Army officer, Captain Shaw, went to India as a medical missionary to a leper colony. His eyes welled with tears as he saw three lepers who were prisoners, their hands and feet bound by chains that cut into their diseased flesh. Shaw turned to the guard and said, “Please unfasten these chains.” “But it isn’t safe,” the guard replied. “These men are not just lepers; they’re dangerous criminals.”
“I’ll be responsible; they’re suffering enough,” Shaw said, as he took the keys, and tenderly removed the shackles and treated their bleeding ankles and wrists.
About two weeks later Captain Shaw had his first misgivings about freeing these criminals. He had to make an overnight trip and feared leaving his wife and child alone. His wife insisted that she wasn’t afraid; God would protect her. So the doctor left. The next morning when Mrs. Shaw went to her door, she was startled to see the three criminals lying on her steps. One explained, “We know the doctor go. We stay here all night so no harm come to you.” That was their response to the doctor’s act of love for them—to serve him freely out of gratitude. That should be our response to God’s freeing us from bondage to sin—to give our lives in holy service to Him.
Have you personally experienced the tender mercy of God by receiving the forgiveness of sins He offers in the Lord Jesus Christ? Has the Holy Spirit opened your eyes to your desperate situation outside of Christ? You sit in darkness and the shadow of death, awaiting God’s awful judgment. You can do nothing to save yourself. But God has done it all. In His tender mercy, He offers you a full pardon if you will receive Jesus Christ.
Years ago, a man named Dr. Barnardo, who ran a London orphanage, was approached by a dirty, ragged little boy who asked for admission. The doctor looked at him and said, “But my boy, I don’t know you. What do you have to recommend you?”
The boy was both needy and bright. He quickly held up before Dr. Barnardo his ragged coat and with a confident voice said, “If you please, sir, I thought these here would be all I needed to recommend me.” Dr. Barnardo caught him up in his arms and took him in, because that truly was all he needed to recommend him—his rags.
Do you need forgiveness? Then bring all your sins and apply to Jesus. Because of His tender mercy, God will pardon all who seek His forgiveness. Salvation means the forgiveness of our sins by God’s mercy. There’s no such thing as sin that is greater than the tender mercy of our God!
Copyright Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
A few years ago, newscaster Andy Rooney responded to the charge that his profession only covered the negative side of everything. He imagined a newscast in which it was reported that planes took off and landed safely. In Florida, the orange crop was hit by another night of average weather. The oranges just hung in there and grew. In Detroit, General Motors announced that 174,000 Chevrolets would not be recalled because they were all perfect. Rooney’s point was that good news isn’t always appreciated unless it’s against the backdrop of bad news.
Our text tells us the best news in the world, but two factors make it difficult for people to appreciate it. First, the Christmas story is perhaps the most widely known story in history. As a result, many people, even Christians, shrug it off as not being especially exciting or relevant to the problems they are facing. Second, many people do not realize what dire straits they are in regarding their standing before God and their eternal destiny. So when they read the familiar story that a Savior has been born in the city of Bethlehem, they yawn and say, “That’s nice. What’s for dinner?” Not seeing their desperate need for salvation, they fail to appreciate the fact that this story is the best news in all of history.
The best news in the world is that a Savior was born for you, who is Christ the Lord.
A couple of years ago, Moody Magazine (Jan./Feb., 1996) reported that 49 percent of professing Christians agree that “all good people, whether they consider Jesus Christ to be Savior or not, will live in heaven after they die.” If that opinion is true, then the story of the birth of Jesus may warm your heart and make you feel good. But it won’t be the best news in the world, news that you cannot live without. However, if the Bible is correct in stating that all people have sinned and apart from Christ they are under God’s condemnation, then the news that the Savior has been born is hardly just nice! It is the best news in the world and it is absolutely crucial! Consider five aspects of this good news:
This needs to be emphasized in our day. So many legends, such as Santa Claus, have become intertwined with the Christmas story that people lump them all together and forget that the birth of Jesus Christ as reported in the Bible is true history. Some may ask, “Who cares if it’s history or not? The story about the virgin Mary, the Christ child, the angels, the wise men, the shepherds, and all that stuff is a heartwarming tale that children love to hear. It helps everyone focus on peace on earth for a few brief days every year. So what difference does it make if it’s really true or not?”
It makes all the difference in the world. If it’s just a heartwarming legend, you can choose to believe or disbelieve it. It’s your option, based on how it makes you feel. It’s a completely subjective decision, binding on no one.
But if the story is actually happened as reported by Luke, then the birth of Jesus the Savior confronts every person with some objective facts that cannot be shrugged off as personal opinion. The fact that these events happened as reported means that God exists and that He truly broke into human history in the birth of Jesus in fulfillment of many prophecies. The fact that God actually sent a Savior implies that people without the Savior are alienated from God and desperately need to be reconciled with Him through the forgiveness of their sins.
This means that the relationship between God and His people is not based on an inward experience inside their own heads, but upon a reality that was seen, heard, and authenticated by these witnesses. It means that you don’t just believe in Jesus because it makes you feel warm and happy inside, or because He helps you face life’s problems or because you like the Christian traditions of worship. It means that you believe the Christian message because it is true. Even if it brings you persecution and death, you cling to it because it is better authenticated in history than even the fact that George Washington was the first president of the United States. The good news about Christ the Savior is historically true.
The angel states it plainly in verse 11: Jesus, born of the virgin Mary, is the “Savior, who is Christ [Messiah, “Anointed One”] the Lord.” Consider who this Savior is:
He is fully man. He was born in the city of David, to descendants of David who were there to register for their taxes. That sounds pretty human, doesn’t it? Do you suppose Joseph grumbled about having to make a 90-mile, three-day trip, just to register to pay his taxes to the despised Romans? Isn’t it interesting that the God who sovereignly used the Roman emperor’s tax edict to get Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem for the birth of the Messiah (to fulfill prophecy) didn’t also sovereignly arrange for a room for them in the inn? There weren’t any special royal privileges for this baby. They laid Him in a feeding trough. Contrary to the popular Christmas carol, this baby did cry! There was no halo around His head. What the shepherds saw was a wrinkled, red, newborn human baby. Jesus the Savior assumed full humanity so that He might bear the sins of the human race.
He is fully God. The angel told the shepherds that this one who had been born in Bethlehem was Christ the Lord. We must interpret this title in light of its use in the Old Testament and in light of its context in Luke. In the Old Testament, the Lord clearly is God, Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! Luke uses the same word in 2:9, where is says that the angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. He uses it in 2:23 to refer to “the law of the Lord” and “holy to the Lord.” If the word means something different in verse 11 than it does in verse 9 or verse 23, surely Luke would have clarified it. The Savior had to be man to bear the sins of humans; but He also had to be God so that His sacrifice had merit before the holy throne of Almighty God. Only Jesus is that unique Savior.
Before moving on from this term, Lord, we must note that it implies that Jesus has authority over every person, as well as over all angelic and demonic powers. It is absurd for a person to say, “I’ve accepted Jesus as my Savior, but not as my Lord.” You can’t divide Him into neat categories to serve your selfish needs! Jesus is both Savior and Lord, which means that submitting your entire life to Him is not an option for you to consider adding to the salvation package at some later date. It is demanded by virtue of who He is, the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth!
This Savior is the Christ (or Messiah). Messiah is the Hebrew and Christ is the Greek word for “Anointed One.” It refers to Jesus as the special Anointed King and Priest, who brings God’s salvation to His people. In the Old Testament, the only two office bearers to be anointed were the King and the High Priest, but the messianic expectation centered on the kingly aspect, as portrayed in Psalm 2. The title, Christ, especially focuses on the fact that Jesus is the One who fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies about the promised Savior.
Finally, note that this one who was born is the Savior. This implies that those He came to save are lost, alienated from God, under His just condemnation because of their sins. What Jesus saves us from is the awful wrath of God. The term also implies that we are helpless and can do nothing to save ourselves. We need outside intervention if we are to be delivered from God’s judgment. Jesus alone provides salvation for sinners.
So this combination of terms, that this Jesus who was born is a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, attributes to Jesus the highest possible view of His person. Any message that implies or states that Jesus is less than fully human, less than fully God, less than fully Lord, or less than fully the Savior from sin and judgment, is not the good news of the Bible. The good news centers on the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you ever considered why the story does not say, “Now there were in the same region scribes and Pharisees, keeping watch over their scrolls and religious rituals”? Or, “There were kings and princes keeping watch over their treasures at the palace.” God chose to reveal the birth of the Savior to simple shepherds who were going about their duties. Why shepherds? God chose shepherds to show that …
The good news is for all people, not just for the elite. As Paul told the Corinthians, “Consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God” (1 Cor. 1:26-29).
If the gospel were some complicated philosophy that required years of graduate study and a high I.Q. to grasp, then those who attained it would boast of their intelligence. If the gospel required sums of money or high social standing to attain, there would be no hope for the poor and lowly. But the beauty of the good news is that even an uneducated, illiterate tribal man in the jungle can understand that he is a sinner and the Jesus Christ is God’s Savior, and by God’s grace, he can believe and be saved.
The good news involved the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. It is likely that the very sheep these men were tending in the fields that night were being prepared for slaughter at the Passover in Jerusalem. Thus it is symbolic that the shepherds who were watching the Passover lambs would be invited to Bethlehem to view the Lamb of God who would be slain for sinners.
In His perfect justice, God has declared that the wages of sin is death. But in His love and mercy, God provided the very penalty His justice demanded. The entire Jewish sacrificial system pointed ahead to Jesus Christ, the perfect sin-bearer, who offered Himself as the acceptable substitute for sinners. If you trust in Him as your sin-bearer, God transfers your guilt to Him and His perfect righteousness to you.
The good news provided us with a Good Shepherd. God has always had a special place in His heart for shepherds. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were shepherds. King David was called from tending the sheep to shepherd God’s people. David was a type of his promised descendant, who would reign on David’s throne, who said of Himself, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). If you will trust in Jesus as your Savior, He will become your Good Shepherd, who will care for you as no other can. He knows your deepest needs. He will protect you from wolves and thieves who would destroy your soul. He came to give His sheep abundant life (John 10:10-13).
So God revealed His Savior to these simple shepherds to show us that His good news is for common people. It involved the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. It provides us with Jesus as our Good Shepherd.
The good news about Christ the Savior is historically true. It is based on His unique Person. It reaches the common person.
The events that happened to those shepherds on that historic night were symbolic of what happens to every person who responds to the good news of Christ the Savior. First, they were sitting in the darkness of the Judean night. Coming immediately after Zacharias’ prophecy that the Sunrise from on high would “shine upon those who sit in darkness” (1:79), the story of the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night is more than a coincidence. It shows a fulfillment of God’s promise. Their sitting out in that black night is a picture of every human heart without the Savior. We all sit in darkness and the shadow of death.
Then, suddenly, there was a great flash of light. An angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. It was as if a prolonged lightning flash lit up the night sky. But it was more than a physical event. It symbolized what happens to every person when the Holy Spirit illumines his or her darkened heart with the light of the gospel. Whereas before they were blind, now they see. As Isaiah prophesied, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them” (Isa. 9:2).
It’s easy to understand the shepherds’ next response: They were terrified. Sitting in darkness in a deserted place is enough by itself to make you a bit jittery. They were watching their flocks because of the danger of robbers or wolves. So they’re sitting there, kind of on edge, but also fighting drowsiness, when suddenly the sky lights up like the noonday sun, and a man who had not been there seconds before was instantly standing before them, brilliant in his appearance. Instant terror!
It’s much the same when the light of the gospel flashes upon your mind. Sitting in the darkness of sin may have been a bit spooky, but it was tolerable. But suddenly the glory of God’s absolute holiness shines into your sin-blackened heart, and you realize, with Isaiah when he got a vision of God, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:5).
But, thankfully, God in His tender mercy does not leave us in that terrifying situation. The angel immediately spoke words of comfort and joy, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy …” (2:10). With John Newton, we sing, “’Twas grace that caused my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.”
The intensity and the sequence of these events will vary from person to person. There is a sense in which as we grow in our walk with God, our awareness of the utter blackness of our hearts, the blinding intensity of the unapproachable light of God’s presence, and the joy of knowing that our sins are forgiven, will continually increase. They aren’t all present in fully developed form at the moment of conversion. But they will be present to some extent in the heart of every believer. If you do not, to some degree, know the fear of God and the joy of sins forgiven, I question whether you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. Note one final thing:
The shepherds did not hear this great news and then sit around discussing it. They didn’t send a delegation to the rabbis in Jerusalem to get their view of things. They didn’t say, “We’ve always believed these things. After all, we’re Jews, we know the Scriptures, that Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem. Thanks for telling us!” Rather, they responded in several definite ways:
The response of faith. Although the text does not explicitly say that the shepherds responded by faith, it describes their response of faith. They obviously believed the words of the angel or they would not have left their sheep and gone to Bethlehem to see for themselves what the Lord had revealed to them.
And, what did they see when they got to Bethlehem? Did they see a kingly child arrayed in royal robes in a golden cradle with servants attending Him? Did He and His mother have halos over their heads? Not quite! They saw a common couple from Nazareth in a primitive stable with a normal-looking newborn baby. It wasn’t exactly the way you would expect God to bring His Anointed Savior into this world. But the shepherds viewed this baby with eyes of faith, in accordance with the word of God given through the angel.
When God reveals Christ to your soul, you must respond with eyes of faith. Jesus may not be the kind of Savior you expected. You might have had in mind a Savior who could give you everything you’ve always wanted. Your thoughts about the Savior might not have included birth in a stable, let alone crucifixion on a cross. But this Jesus is God’s Savior and you must personally believe in Him as revealed in the Bible.
The response of proclamation. “When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child” (2:17). It is “good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people” (2:10). The shepherds didn’t stop to think about how people might respond. Some might have said with raised eyebrows, “You saw a bunch of angels and then you went and saw carpenter and his wife with a baby in a feeding trough, and you think he’s the Messiah, huh? Right!” But that didn’t stop these men from relating the story. Once you have seen the Savior with eyes of faith, you cannot stop telling others the great news.
The response of praise. “The shepherds went back glorifying and praising God” (2:20). When God has taken you from the darkness of your sin and by His grace revealed His Savior to your soul, your heart will be filled with praise and joy. As the apostle Paul puts it, believers should be “joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:11-13). Those who have heard God’s good news should respond with faith, with proclamation, and with praise.
The response of endurance. “The shepherds went back …” (2:20). Went back where? Went back to sign a book contract and to appear on Christian TV shows? They went back to launch a ministry called “Shepherd’s Vision,” and they became famous throughout the land? No! They went back to their sheep.
That’s kind of a letdown, isn’t it? After the great things that they saw, they went back to the routine job they had been in before. They didn’t set up tours of Bethlehem. They didn’t put on seminars on how to have visions of angels. They went back to their jobs, but praising God for His abundant grace to them.
God doesn’t call us to a spectacular, flashy, constantly exciting life. He calls us to believe in the Savior, and then He sends us back into the routine to learn to rejoice in Him and His great salvation day in and day out.
A man traveled a great distance for an interview with a distinguished scholar. He was ushered into the man’s study, where he said, “Doctor, I notice that the walls of your study are lined with books from the ceiling to the floor. No doubt you have read them all. I know you have written many yourself. You have traveled extensively, and doubtless you’ve had the privilege of conversing with some of the world’s wisest men. I’ve come a long way to ask you just one question. Tell, me, of all you’ve learned, what is the one thing most worth knowing?”
Putting his hand on his guest’s shoulder, the scholar replied with emotion in his voice, “My dear sir, of all the things I have learned, only two are really worth knowing. The first is, I am a great sinner, and the second, Jesus Christ is a great Savior!”
If you know those two things personally, you know the best news in the whole world, that a Savior has been born for you who is Christ the Lord!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Charles Eliot was the president and then, in retirement, the president emeritus of Harvard University. During the summer of his 90th year, he made his way slowly down the road from his cottage in Northeast Harbor, Maine, to the cottage of his neighbors, the Peabodys. Mrs. Peabody greeted him warmly and invited him into the living room. After a brief conversation, Eliot asked if he might hold her new baby.
Mystified, she lifted her infant son from his crib and laid him in the arms of Harvard’s venerable president emeritus. Eliot held the baby quietly for a few minutes. Then, with a little gesture of thanks, he returned him to his mother, explaining, “I have been looking at the end of life for so long that I wanted to look for a few moments at its beginning.” (In Reader’s Digest [8/83].)
We all need hope. Especially in old age, but also at all other points in life, we need hope. One of the blessings that comes along with the little ones God entrusts to us is hope.
And yet, the hope that comes with children is an uncertain hope at best. There is always the uncertainty of disease or death. What parent of a newborn has not gone in by the crib in the middle of the night and put his or her ear down close enough to make sure that the little one is breathing? If the child survives disease or an early death, there is the uncertainty of this evil world. Crime, child molesters, drunk drivers, the threat of terrorism or war, and economic instability make every parent worry about the kind of world our children and grandchildren will grow up in.
Given these uncertainties, when we meet an elderly person who is filled with hope, we need to sit up and take notice. Here is someone who could be pessimistic, cynical, filled with fears and anxieties. But he is brimming over with firm hope. We had better listen. We might learn some things.
Simeon was such a man. When he held the infant Jesus in his arms in the temple courtyard, we see more than just an old man taking hope in any newborn. Rather, we see an old man who has put his hope in the promises of God. This was no ordinary newborn! He was the fulfillment of God’s promises to His people. As we observe this elderly saint with this child in his arms, we learn some valuable lessons about the hope we all so desperately need:
Those who hope in God’s promises in Christ will be rewarded.
Let’s look first at the hope that Simeon had and how it was rewarded. Then we will look at the object of his hope.
Simeon is described as “righteous and devout” (2:25). “Righteous” means that his behavior in the sight of God and towards his fellow man was in accordance with God’s standards. He wasn’t a phony, practicing his good deeds to be seen by others. He quietly and consistently obeyed God, even when people weren’t looking.
“Devout” has the connotation of reverent. It sometimes means careful. It means that Simeon wasn’t careless about the spiritual life. While you can skim over these two words in a flash, they reflect a lifetime of cultivation. No one accidentally becomes righteous and devout. Simeon cultivated his walk with God.
The key to Simeon’s righteous life can be seen in his view of himself in relation to God. In verse 29, the word “Lord” is an unusual one, used only five times in reference to God. We get our word “despot” from it. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon says that it means “absolute ownership and uncontrolled power.” Simeon saw God as the Sovereign Lord who had prepared His salvation (2:30, 31) and had graciously allowed Simeon to see it. And Simeon saw himself as the slave of this Sovereign Lord. Slaves have no rights. They belong to their owner and their only obligation is to obey. Simeon had a high view of God and a humble view of himself.
Keep in mind the times in which Simeon lived. The Jewish religious leaders were largely political and not deeply spiritual. There had been no prophet in Israel for 400 years. Israel had been oppressed by one foreign power after another during those long centuries, and even now they were ruled by the corrupt Herod under the dominion of Rome. It would have been easy for Simeon to get caught up in the political fervor of the times and to wonder skeptically, “Where are these great promises of God for His people?” But instead, he was righteous and devout.
If we hope in Christ, we must take care to live righteously. We will view God as the Sovereign Lord, our Master, and ourselves as His slaves. We will comb His Word to determine how He wants us to live, and we will walk with Him every day. To hope in Jesus Christ means to live righteously.
He was “looking for the consolation of Israel” (2:25). This refers to the time prophesied by Isaiah (40:1-2) when God would comfort His people and remove their sins by sending His Anointed One, the Messiah. How long had Simeon been looking? Probably all his life! It would have been easy for him to think, “Generations have come and gone and these promises have never been fulfilled. Why expect that it will happen in my lifetime? Just settle in for the long haul, and give up this notion that Messiah will come.”
Do you live expectantly? Do you expect God to answer your prayers, or are you surprised when one gets answered? Must have been a coincidence! Do you expect the Lord to return soon? Maybe you’re thinking, “Come on, people have been expecting that for 1,900 years, and it hasn’t happened.” But those people were the better for living each day expecting Him to come in their lifetimes. In our day, the signs of His coming are all around us. Will the Son of Man find faith in us when He comes (Luke 18:8)? People of hope live expectantly, waiting on God to fulfill His promises.
In case you missed it, the Holy Spirit is mentioned three times in verses 25-27: “the Holy Spirit was upon him.” “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit…” “He came in the Spirit into the temple.” Here is an Old Testament saint, living before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and yet he probably lived more in the fullness of the Spirit than most Christians today!
Have you ever asked yourself, “If God were to withdraw His Holy Spirit from me, would I even notice the difference?” Would your week have gone any differently than it did if the Spirit had pulled out? To walk by the Spirit means to depend on Him consciously for everything you do. You depend on Him to resist temptation. You ask Him for insight into His Word. You rely on Him for the right attitude in the midst of trials. You seek Him for wisdom in difficult decisions.
When you live in the power of the Holy Spirit, your life is marked by hope in God. Paul wrote (Rom. 15:13), “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Joy and peace and hope are the opposite of depression and anxiety and despair. That verse does not just apply to certain personality types, or to those who are in relatively trouble-free situations. As you learn to live in the fullness of God’s Spirit, the God of hope will fill you with His joy, peace, and abounding hope! If you lack these things, don’t get more depressed in hearing me say this. Get on your knees every day and ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit. To hope in Christ means to live righteously and expectantly in the power of the Holy Spirit.
God rewarded Simeon’s hope, so that he held in his arms the Lord’s Anointed, as the Holy Spirit had promised. Simeon was a fulfilled man. There is no hint of regret in his voice, no bitterness, no remorse at having spent his life as he had. He was rewarded in at least three ways, which apply to all who hope in God:
I will show in a moment the amazing grasp of spiritual truth that Simeon possessed. When Jesus was born, King Herod had to call for the chief priests and scribes to discover what the Old Testament said about the place of His birth. They could give the correct answer, but they missed the fact of it. It was revealed to humble shepherds and now, to this godly old man who had been waiting on God for this very event.
Simeon understood through the Holy Spirit that this very Child in his arms was the Lord’s promised Anointed One. He knew that not all would welcome Him, but that there would be opposition resulting in much anguish for Mary (2:34, 35). From Isaiah the prophet, Simeon knew that this Child would be for Israel “a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over” (Isa. 8:14). The commentator, Godet (A Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke [I. K. Funk & Co.], p. 88), shrewdly observes,
Simeon discerned beneath the outward forms of Jewish piety, their love of human glory, their hypocrisy, avarice, and hatred of God; and he perceives that this child will prove the occasion for all this hidden venom being poured forth from the recesses of their hearts… We feel that this old man knows more about the moral condition of the people and their rulers than he has a mind to tell.
Even the disciples seemed to be caught off guard by the opposition Jesus faced. Especially they didn’t expect the cross. But Simeon seemed to know that God’s Anointed would cause division and opposition. He knew that God’s revelation was also for the Gentiles. His understanding of the things of God enabled him to be stable and unaffected by the currents of evil around him.
That’s the kind of understanding we should seek as we hope in Christ. While we must be careful and diligent students of God’s Word, the kind of knowledge we should seek is not just academic. We should pray that we would have insight into the ways of God so that we would have divine wisdom to discern our times and live in godliness in this evil day.
For Simeon, this one moment in the temple made all his life worth the living. His deepest desire in life had been to see the consolation of Israel, the Lord’s Christ. Maybe he expected to see a powerful king riding on a white charger or sitting on a throne. What he actually saw was a common couple with a newborn baby, going through the everyday ritual of cleansing and presentation as prescribed in the Jewish law. But the Holy Spirit revealed to Simeon, “This is the one.” He responded, “I’m ready to die now that I have seen this Child!” His godly desires had been fulfilled.
Proverbs 10:24 states, “The desire of the righteous will be granted.” Psalm 34:10 affirms, “They who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.” Psalm 84:11 says, “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” Psalm 37:4 promises, “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Where did we ever get the idea that if you follow the Lord, He will make you miserable? As a loving Father, He will satisfy the desires of our hearts if we hope in Him.
This does not mean that the Lord will grant all our selfish wants. Each of those promises contains a condition. He grants the desire of the righteous. They who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing. He withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly. He gives the desires of the heart to those who delight in the Lord. When you delight yourself in the Lord, His desires become your desires. The focus of your prayers becomes, “Father, hallow Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” If you are hoping for your kingdom to come, your hope will be frustrated. If you are hoping for His kingdom to come, your hope will be abundantly fulfilled, because His kingdom will come in power and glory.
Those who hope in Christ will be rewarded with an understanding of the things of God and the fulfillment of their godly desires. Also,
“Now, Lord, let Your bond-servant depart in peace, according to Your word” (2:29). The picture is of a sentinel being relieved of his watch. Simeon has watched for Messiah all his life. Now he has seen Him and is ready to be relieved of his duty and go home. He was ready to die in peace because he had seen Jesus Christ.
You are not ready to die until you’ve seen Jesus. I do not mean, “see Him” literally or in a vision. What I mean is, you are not ready to die until you have seen Jesus Christ as God’s anointed Savior, and you have welcomed Him into your life as your own Lord and Savior. But once you know that the blood of Jesus has covered all your sin so that you can stand before the Holy God in the righteousness of His Son, then whether you live for another 60 years or 60 hours, you can know that the sting of death is removed because Jesus bore it for you. You’re ready to die in peace.
I just finished reading a powerful book, Richard Baxter’s The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, written in 1649. The subtitle is, “A Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints in Their Enjoyment of God in Heaven.” For almost 400 pages he develops the theme that the great hope of Christians is not in this life, but in heaven. Our focus on heaven is to shape our every day in this fleeting life. He argues, “For he that fears dying, must be always fearing; because he hath always reason to expect it. And how can that man’s life be comfortable, who lives in continual fear of losing his comforts?” (p. 224). The believer whose hope is truly in Christ and not in the things of this world is ready to depart and be with Christ, which is far better (Phil. 1:23).
So to hope in Christ means to live righteously and expectantly in the power of the Holy Spirit. Those who hope in Christ will be rewarded. But how can we know that our hope is not just wishful thinking? How can we be sure that our hope will not disappoint us?
Everything we hope for is centered in the person of Jesus Christ. If He is not who the Bible proclaims Him to be, we have put our hope in an empty wish. Note how Simeon describes the child in his arms: He is “the consolation of Israel” (2:25). He is “the Lord’s Christ,” the one prophesied of throughout the Old Testament (2:26). He is God’s “salvation” (2:30), “a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel” (2:32). He “is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel” (2:34). This is no common Child! Briefly note four things about Jesus Christ:
Although this text does not mention Jesus’ virgin birth, it is important to affirm it here. Liberal critics, who try to undermine the authority of God’s Word, pick up on the reference to Jesus’ father and mother, and that they were amazed at Simeon’s words (2:33), and conclude that Luke here used a source that was unaware of the virgin birth. In the previous chapter (1:26-38) Luke makes the virgin birth quite plain. Either Luke was stupid to use a source within the space of a chapter that contradicts what he just affirmed or the critics are stupid. Take your pick!
The reference to Jesus’ father and mother is simply the outward perspective. The fact that they marveled shows that they were in the process of collecting the various pieces of the puzzle as to who this Son of theirs really was. The fact that Jesus was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit while she was still a virgin preserved Him from sin and means that He alone is qualified to save us from our sins.
But although Jesus was sinless, He yet identified Himself with us in our sin. He was circumcised according to the Law (2:21), a picture of God cutting away the sinfulness of our hearts so that we are set apart unto Him. He was dedicated to the Lord as the Law prescribed. His mother went through the ritual purification required by the Law. Later, Jesus would submit to baptism under John. He did not go through any of these rituals because of His own sinfulness, but that He might be identified with the people He came to redeem from their sins.
God chose the nation Israel as His means of bringing salvation to all the earth. Jesus was the light of God’s revelation to the Gentiles, who were outside the covenant people of God. That God used Israel to bring salvation to the world brings glory to Israel as His chosen people. When Israel rejected Jesus as their Messiah, God brought a partial hardening to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in; and then all Israel will be saved (Rom. 11:25, 26). But the point is, Jesus Christ is not only the Savior of the Jews, but of any person from any nation who will call upon Him. It is the glory of the gospel that wherever it goes, no matter how primitive or pagan the culture, when people believe in Jesus Christ, their lives are transformed as they are delivered from the penalty and power of their sins. Jesus is God’s salvation for everyone.
He “is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed” (2:34). For men to fall, they first must be standing. The meaning of this verse is that those who view themselves as upright before God in their own merit will stumble and fall over Jesus because they refuse to lay aside their pride and to trust in Christ alone for salvation. But those who confess their sin and their need of Him will be raised up to eternal life. Jesus’ coming brought opposition from the proud because He revealed the thoughts of their hearts. Just as the sun rises to give us light, but it also casts shadows, so Christ who came to bring salvation also brought judgment to those who refuse to submit to Him.
A sword would pierce Mary’s soul (2:35). This is a prophetic reference to the anguish Mary would feel as she witnessed the crucifixion of her son. Simeon may had in mind Isaiah 53:5, “He was pierced through for our transgressions,” or Zechariah 12:10, “They will look on Me whom they have pierced.” Through the Holy Spirit, Simeon understood what even the disciples failed to grasp until after the event, that the Christ had “to suffer these things and to enter into glory” (Luke 24:26). Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness from our sins (Heb. 9:22). If you are trusting in your own goodness to get into heaven, you will fall on judgment day. But if your trust is in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, who is God’s only Savior, you will be welcomed into God’s holy presence on that day. Can you say with certainty, “Jesus Christ is my salvation?”
If Christ is your salvation, you can have hope no matter how difficult your circumstances. During World War II, some American prisoners in a German concentration camp secretly received word of the Allied victory three days before the Germans heard of it. During those three days, their circumstances were no different. They still suffered all the privations they had become used to. But their attitude changed dramatically. A wave of hope spread among the prisoners. Victory and liberation were assured! They could endure those last three days because they had hope.
Whether you’re suffering from a deadly disease or grieving over the loss of a loved one or facing overwhelming trials of some other nature, you can have hope if you will trust in Jesus Christ as God’s salvation for you. He has won the victory over sin and death and hell. Those who hope in Him will not be disappointed!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
What is the measure of a life well spent? How do you know whether you are wasting your life or investing it in the things that really matter?
In America we have several yardsticks by which we measure a life. One is usefulness. We are pragmatists at heart. We feel that if a person does something useful for society, whether it is a profession or a trade, he or she spends his or her life well.
Another yardstick we use is busyness or sheer activity. Our lifestyles reflect our values here—we’re all extremely busy people. Our weekly calendars are full to the brim. We have the notion that if you just sit around, you’re wasting your life.
We also gauge our lives by adventure and excitement. If we can’t get it firsthand, we pick it up vicariously on TV or at sporting events. Our heroes lead exciting lives, either through romance or life-and-death risk taking. We read magazines like People that tell us about the rich and famous, secretly wishing that our lives could be like theirs. We generally think that a person who dies rich and famous has achieved success.
Behind all of these yardsticks is that of personal happiness. Even if a person dies poor and unknown, if he or she was happy or content, that is what matters.
Against these yardsticks of a life well spent, I want to introduce you to Anna. She comes on the biblical page, is described in three short verses, is not even quoted directly, and is gone. If we met a modern-day Anna, we would probably find her a bit odd. Her values clearly are out of sync with those of modern America. Can you picture a reporter for People magazine interviewing her?
Reporter: What is your name?
Anna: Anna, daughter of Phanuel, tribe of Asher. I’m Jewish.
Reporter: Whose daughter? Wanna spell that? How old are you, Ma’am?
Anna: Some say I’m over 100, but others say I’m 84. I like that better!
Reporter: Well, either way you’ve been around the block a few times. I’ll bet you’ve had an interesting life. What have you done?
Anna: Like most Jewish girls, I got married in my teens, but my husband died when I was in my early twenties, before we had children. I’ve been going to the temple almost every day since then.
Reporter: You go to the temple every day? That’s amazing! What do you do there?
Anna: Well, I fast and pray a lot. And, I’m a prophetess, so I hear messages from God now and then.
Reporter: Right! (He thinks to himself, “Maybe this story belongs in the Guinness Book of World Records, not in People magazine!”)
What does this brief glimpse of Anna’s life teach us?
A life devoted to God is a life well spent.
By our American standards, we might look at Anna’s life and think, “What a waste! Eighty-four years, most of it spent in the temple fasting and praying! You’ve got to be kidding! That’s not the kind of life I want to live.” I’ll grant that we’re not all called to devote ourselves to a ministry of prayer and fasting. Obviously, God had gifted her in that way, and she lived accordingly. But apart from her unique gifts, the principle holds true: Anna lived fully devoted to God. God looked on her with favor. In the Bible, every fact is confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses. Along with Simeon, God chose Anna to bear witness to the infant Jesus as the Messiah. She played her God-given role well. Her life was well spent.
But you still may be thinking, “Come on, didn’t Anna really waste her life?” You may not verbalize it, but you may be thinking, “Religion has its proper place, but this is a bit extreme. Why spend your life in devotion to God?”
Isn’t it? Stop and think about it—what else matters in this life? The Pharisees and scribes thought that their religious duties were what mattered. They scurried around the temple precincts that day performing their rituals, oblivious to this unique baby who was being dedicated to the Lord. It gave them a sense of pride to be able to say, “All my life I have kept the commandments of the Torah.” But they missed the Messiah because they were really more devoted to themselves than to God.
The Sadducees thought that political influence and power were what mattered. “Life after death,” they scoffed, “is just pie in the sky when you die. What matters is here and now!” A group of them passed within yards of the child and Anna as they debated the latest edict from Rome.
The temple merchants thought that a good income was what mattered. They hawked their temple money and sold their officially approved sacrificial animals within earshot of this humble couple and their newborn son. They lived well and left a nice inheritance to their children when they died. But they missed God’s Savior that day. In contrast to all these, Anna knew that devotion to God is all that matters. She recognized the child as God’s promised Messiah. She was wiser than all the religious leaders in Jerusalem.
I read once about a computer company that went public and its president became an instant millionaire. Hours later he lost control of his Ferrari, crashed through 20 feet of guardrail, and was killed. The Los Angeles Times reported, “Until the accident at 4:30 Wednesday afternoon, it had been the best of days for [the president] and the thriving young company, …” The same week another obituary for a Chinese politburo official, who died of a heart attack, stated that his “death came one week before he was expected to be elected vice president of China.” If either man died without Christ, we should ask, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”
I read recently of a man who thinks he knows how to live to be 120. I thought, “Okay, let’s grant that he succeeds. Then what?” Even if we could figure out how to live 900 years, like the early patriarchs, we still have to die and face eternity. In light of that, devotion to God is really all that matters in this life! With it, we can enjoy earthly blessings if God grants them. Without it, everything is an empty shell. The fact is, not everyone can attain the things that the world labels as success. But,
No matter what your station in life, you can devote yourself to the Lord, and that makes whatever you are and whatever you do count in light of eternity. Take Anna, for example.
Anna was a woman. While Jewish women enjoyed more respect in that day than women in other cultures, there still was a fair amount of discrimination against them. The rabbis did not approve of the same amount of instruction in the Torah being given to girls as to boys. They regarded women's minds as not adapted for such investigations (Alfred Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life [Eerdmans], pp. 132-133). The women were restricted to an area of the temple called “The Women’s Court.” They could not enter the inner court where the ceremonies were performed. According to Josephus, women and slaves could not give evidence in court (cited by Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel [McGraw-Hill], 1:156).
And yet the Lord is pleased to include the testimony of Anna concerning Jesus. God is no respecter of persons. He is pleased with the devotion of any person, male or female.
Anna was a widow. In fact, she had been widowed at an early age. She easily could have grown bitter toward God. She could have complained of her loneliness. Widows in that culture didn’t have much opportunity to get an education and learn a business or trade to provide for themselves. They were often the target of unscrupulous businessmen. No doubt Anna had experienced a difficult life. And yet she did not turn her back on God. In fact, God declares that He has a special concern for orphans and widows: “A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows is God in His holy habitation” (Ps. 68:5). Anna took refuge under God’s protective care. Her trials drove her to deeper devotion to God, not away from Him.
Anna was elderly. While the elderly were more respected in that society than they are in ours, they were still subject to the abuse of the unscrupulous. In our pragmatic society, the elderly are often viewed as useless. They can’t take care of themselves. They can’t make a living. Although many may think it, few are crass enough to say what Colorado Governor Richard Lamm said a few years ago. During a discussion of spiraling health care costs, Lamm said that terminally ill elderly people have “a duty to die and get out of the way.” In the context, Lamm was not speaking of the right of a competent, terminally ill patient to refuse treatment that would only prolong the dying process. He was speaking of the death of the elderly as a service to society so that limited resources could be freed up for other more useful goals (reported in “Action Line,” April 11, 1984). Thankfully, God does not view the elderly as useless or as a burden on society! If an elderly person is devoted to God, their life and death is precious in His sight (Ps. 116:15).
The point is, no matter what your station in life—male or female, young or old, rich or poor—you can be devoted to God and He will be pleased with your devotion. The world may ignore or despise you, but God always has had such a godly remnant. They are the salt of the earth; they preserve the whole mass from corruption. You can be counted among them.
Thus we’ve seen that devotion to God is all that matters; it is available to all.
Worship: Most likely Anna did not live in the temple, but Luke means that she was there all the time. The word translated “serving” (NASB) has the nuance of worship or service to God. Anna’s worship took the form of “fastings and prayers” (2:37). Fasting means going without food for some period of time, and is usually joined with prayer. For the Jews, the most common fast lasted from sunrise to sunset, although longer fasts are mentioned in the Bible. The Day of Atonement was an annual national fast. Otherwise, fasting was done in times of personal or national distress, or as preparation for special times of seeking the Lord. While there are no commands in the New Testament epistles for us to fast, there are examples of fasting (Acts 9:9; 13:3; 14:23; 2 Cor. 6:5; 11:27). Personally, I have found fasting to be a beneficial way of setting aside time to seek the Lord in times where I needed to know His will or in times of crisis.
Anna’s worship also took the form of prayers. Some of God’s saints are especially gifted for the ministry of prayer in that He enables them to devote large blocks of time to it. Part of that time involves interceding for others, but part of it also will be devoted to praise and thanksgiving. The main thing in prayer is to seek God and commune with Him.
Even if you are not gifted in the ministry of worship and prayer, you need to set aside time to seek the Lord as Anna did. Take a half-day each quarter or one lunch hour each week or an hour each Sunday afternoon to spend in devotion to the Lord. Read His Word, sing some hymns or praise songs, and pray. The familiar ACTS—Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication—is a helpful outline to follow in your prayer time.
Witness: Anna couldn’t keep it to herself; she “continued to speak of Him” to others (2:38). If your cup is brim-full, you can’t help but slop some of it on others. If you are excited about your relationship with the living God who sent His Son to save you from your sins, people around you will know about it. Some believers justify their not witnessing by saying, “I don’t talk about it; I just live the message.” But part of living the Christian life is talking about it!
We all talk about the things we love. Have you ever been around a sports fanatic? What does he talk about? “Did you see that game last night!” Have you ever been around a young man or woman who has just fallen in love? What do they talk about?
Yes, you need to be tactful and sensitive. Yes, you need to wait on the Lord for the right opening. But, all too often we don’t err on the side of being too bold or insensitive. The order, by the way, is important: Worship first, then witness. The reason Anna was telling everyone about the Lord Jesus was that she spent much time in private devotion with the Lord. All too often, the reason that we do not bear witness is that we have lost our first love.
Waiting: Not only Simeon and Anna, but others also were “looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (2:38). While that phrase has nationalistic nuances, it also refers to the spiritual redemption that God had long ago promised and now was bringing to fruition for His people (Isa. 40:1, 9; 52:9; 63:4). J. C. Ryle (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Baker], 2:74-75) observes that although these people lived in a wicked city, they “were not carried away by the flood of worldliness, formality, and self-righteousness around them. They were not infected by the carnal expectations of a mere worldly Messiah, in which most Jews indulged. They lived in the faith of patriarchs and prophets, that the coming Redeemer would bring in holiness and righteousness, and that His principal victory would be over sin and the devil.” Even so, those devoted to God in our day “wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10).
Devotion to God is really all that matters. It is available to everyone. It takes many outward forms, but always involves worship, witness, and waiting for His final redemption to come.
Anna was devoted to God, but the second she saw the baby Jesus, she thanked God and began to speak of Jesus to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. Note:
God the Son and God the Father are inextricably joined in Scripture. In Psalm 2:7 Messiah states, “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He [God] said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’” This does not mean that the Father brought the Son into existence at a point in time. Rather, the “today” is the day of God’s decree. Since it is an eternal decree, it means that Christ is eternally the Son of God, one with the Father. While we can never fully understand the nature of the Trinity, we must affirm the revealed truth of Scripture, that the eternal relationship between the First and Second Persons of the Trinity is expressed as that of Father and Son.
This means that you cannot know God the Father apart from God the Son. In John 8:19, Jesus told the Jews, “You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also.” First John 2:23 states, “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.” You cannot separate God and Jesus Christ. Those who say they worship God but who deny the deity of the Son of God are sadly mistaken. Jesus claimed, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:23).
God the Son is the Redeemer of God’s people. In the eternal decree of God, God the Father determined to send God the Son to bear the sins of His elect. The entire human race is in bondage to sin and under the just condemnation of God’s law. But, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us … in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal. 3:13-14).
To understand the concept of “redemption,” you must keep in mind three things. First, redemption implies antecedent bondage. A free person does not need redemption; slaves need redemption. Every person is born enslaved to sin and under the curse of judgment imposed by God’s holy law. Second, redemption implies cost. A price must be paid to buy the slave out of bondage. Since the wages of sin is death, that was the price to redeem us from our sins. A sinless substitute had to die in our place. Jesus Christ did that on the cross. Third, redemption implies the ownership of that which is redeemed. Since Christ bought us with His blood, as Paul states, “… you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20).
Many years ago, Dr. A. J. Gordon was the pastor of a church in Boston. One day he met a little boy in front of the church who was carrying a rusty cage with several birds in it. Gordon asked, “Son, where did you get those birds?” The boy answered, “I trapped them out in the field.” “What are you going to do with them?” “I’m going to play with them for a while and then I guess I’ll feed them to an old cat we have at home.”
Dr. Gordon asked the boy how much he would take to sell the birds. The boy answered, “Mister, you don’t want them. They’re just old field birds and they can’t sing very well.” Gordon replied, “I’ll give you two dollars for the cage and the birds.” “Okay, it’s a deal,” said the boy, “but you’re making a bad bargain.”
Gordon paid the boy who left happily with his money. Gordon then walked around behind the church, opened the cage, and freed the birds. The next Sunday Dr. Gordon took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon on redemption: he paid the price so that these creatures in bondage, doomed for destruction, could go free. He said, “That little boy said that the birds could not sing very well, but when I released them from the cage, they went singing into the blue, and it seemed that they were singing, ‘Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed.’” (Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations [Assurance Publishers], p. 1231.)
You cannot be devoted to God unless you have been redeemed by His Son. That redemption cost Him dearly, but He offers it to you as a free gift that you can only receive by faith. The instant you receive it, He will free you from sin and judgment. You can go your way singing His praises, devoting your life to Him who loved you and gave Himself for you (Gal. 2:20).
On his deathbed, Matthew Henry, whose commentary on the whole Bible is still widely used almost 300 years after his death, said to a friend, “You have been used to take notice of the sayings of dying men—this is mine: that a life spent in the service of God and communion with Him, is the most pleasant life that anyone can live in this world.” Anna would agree. A life devoted to God is a life well spent. A life devoted to anything else, no matter how noble, is a life ultimately wasted.
Whatever you do for a living, make sure that love for Jesus Christ is at the heart of why you are living. Then, whether you live a short or long life on this earth, you can have the assurance that you have spent it well.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Each month over a million bracelets are being sold with the letters WWJD on them. It stands for, “What would Jesus do?” Some young people report that wearing the bracelet makes them stop and think so that they do not rent an R-rated video or engage in other sinful behavior. As long as you answer the question based on Scripture, rather than your own ideas, it’s a good question to ask yourself often: “What would Jesus do?”
Jesus Christ is the only one ever to live a sinlessly perfect life. First and foremost, we must come to know Him as our Savior, but in addition to that, He is our primary example for godly living. He lived in perfect dependence on the Father, always obedient to His will. This was true not only after He began His public ministry, but also from His youth up.
In Luke 2:39-52, we have the only reference in Scripture to the years between Jesus’ birth and the beginning of His ministry when He was about 30. Some of the apocryphal gospels that circulated in the early centuries of the church contain fanciful and miraculous legends from Jesus’ childhood. He touches some clay birds and they come to life and fly away. He touches a plow that Joseph had botched up and it is instantly made right. Some other legends are more disturbing: The young Jesus curses some bothersome children who immediately wither up or drop dead.
After such fanciful tales, the account in Luke of Jesus getting left behind at the temple sounds pretty tame! But that argues for its authenticity. Most likely Luke got this material from Mary (2:51). We might wish that there was more given in the Bible about Jesus’ childhood years. But Charles Simeon (Expository Outlines on the Whole Bible, [Zondervan], 12:269) notes, “There is little related of him to gratify our curiosity, but enough to regulate our conduct.” Luke includes the story primarily to show us who Jesus is as the unique Son of God, but also so that we will imitate Him in our conduct.
We should imitate Jesus, the Son of God, in spiritual growth, in routine faithfulness, and in commitment to God’s purpose.
Before we look at how we should imitate Jesus, we must be clear on the matter of who He is.
Have you ever put yourself in Joseph and Mary’s sandals, and thought about what it would be like to be the parents of a perfect child? Some of you are thinking, “I would like to have that problem!” But it must have been a difficult role at times! Keep in mind that Joseph and Mary did not have the Gospel accounts to read when they were raising Jesus. It must have been like putting a puzzle together without the picture on the box to look at. They would get a piece here and another piece there, and slowly it began to take shape. But it wasn’t always clear what the final picture would be. This is the second time that Luke has said that Mary treasured all these things in her heart (2:19, 51). She must have often wondered, “Who is this unique Son of mine?” The story of the boy Jesus being left behind at the temple gave her another piece of that puzzle.
The Old Testament prescribed that every Jewish man should appear before the Lord for three feasts each year: Unleavened Bread (Passover), Weeks (Pentecost), and Booths (Deut. 16:16). By Jesus’ time, it was customary for those some distance from Jerusalem to attend only one feast. Joseph and Mary’s custom was to make the 80 mile journey from Nazareth each year for the Passover. This incident happened when Jesus was 12. We don’t know whether this was the first time He went with them, but it must have been the most exciting time of the year, to leave the small town and go to the capital for this celebration that drew thousands of worshipers.
Joseph and Mary stayed for the whole week of festivities and then started back in the caravan. Probably Joseph thought that Jesus was with Mary and she thought he was with Joseph. The fact that they had not checked to make sure probably reflects the fact that they trusted Jesus and knew that He was responsible enough to be where He was supposed to be. When evening came and the caravan stopped for the night, they discovered that Jesus was not with the group.
If you have ever had a child get lost, you can identify with the panic that gripped these conscientious parents. We once lost Christa at Disneyland when she was seven. One minute she was standing next to us, the next minute she was gone. We went through about ten minutes of terror that seemed like ten hours before we found her! You always think worst case scenario—she was kidnapped by a child molester and we’ll never see her again. Joseph and Mary had a lot more time to think the worst than we did. Three days (2:46) probably means one day traveling, a second day returning to Jerusalem, and on the third day they found Him. Given the amount of time, you can appreciate Mary’s emotional words, “Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold, your father and I have been anxiously looking for you.”
Jesus responded, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?" (The Greek text is elliptical and could mean, “about the things of My Father,” but in light of the question of His whereabouts, “in My Father’s house” is the best translation.)
Although neither Joseph nor Mary understood Jesus’ words at the time, she treasured them in her heart and later they bore fruit. When we encounter the mysteries of Scripture, we should do the same. This story and especially Jesus’ answer show us that He came as true man, and yet as more than man, as the unique Son of God, to do the will of His Father.
Jesus was fully, truly human. In Luke 2:40, we have a summary of Jesus’ life from infancy to age 12: Physically He grew stronger. Intellectually and spiritually He grew in wisdom and the grace of God was on Him. Then, in verses 41-51 we have the single incident from Jesus’ twelfth year. In verse 52 we have a summary of His life from 12 until adulthood: He kept making progress in wisdom and in normal physical development (“stature”) and in favor with God and men. The references to God’s grace and favor do not mean His undeserved favor, in the sense that the words are used with sinners. Rather, it means that God’s special hand of blessing was on Jesus in a way that was obvious to everyone.
You may wonder how Jesus, who is eternal God, could grow in wisdom and in favor with God and men. If He is perfect, why did He need to grow? Alfred Plummer explains (The Gospel According to St. Luke [Charles Scribner’s Sons], p. 79): “At each stage He was perfect for that stage, but the perfection of a child is inferior to the perfection of a man; it is the difference between perfect innocence and perfect holiness.” In His humanity, He submitted to His parents. Though in His deity Jesus knew all things, in His humanity He had to grow in godly wisdom and in understanding of His divine calling and mission. The point is, Jesus was truly human.
In early church history, several different heresies denied the true humanity of Jesus. Some said that He was just a spirit or that He seemed human, but was not actually so. The apostle John was battling some such heresy when he wrote that his own hands had handled Jesus and that “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 1:1; 4:2). We need to be careful in emphasizing Jesus’ deity not to slight His humanity. If Jesus was not fully human, then we do not have a Savior, since only a man can save humans from their sin. Nor would we have a Savior who can identify with our weaknesses.
Jesus was fully, truly God. This is the implication of Jesus’ question to His parents. Mary has just mentioned how she and Jesus’ father were anxiously looking for Him. In response, Jesus draws a gentle, but distinct, line between Joseph as His earthly father and God as His true Father. He is showing that the latter relationship has priority over the former. Plummer (pp. 77-78) comments,
It is notable that the first recorded words of the Messiah are an expression of His Divine Sonship as man … These first recorded words are the kernel of the whole narrative, and the cause of its having been preserved. They must mean more than that Jesus is just a son of Abraham, and therefore has God as His Father. His parents would easily have understood so simple a statement as that.
Jesus’ words confirm what the angel had told Mary, as recorded by Luke in 1:32, 35, that her child would be called “Son of the Most High,” and that “the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.” This title was also affirmed at Jesus’ baptism, when God’s voice from heaven proclaimed, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased” (Luke 3:22). Later Jesus’ Jewish opponents understood His claim to have God as His Father to be a claim to equality with God, and in responding to them, Jesus clearly confirmed their understanding (John 5:18-47).
In our day, several prominent cults deny the true deity of Jesus. If He is not eternal God, we have no Savior, because His death on the cross had no merit beyond Himself. So we must affirm both the true humanity of Jesus (apart from sin) along with His true and undiminished deity. He is fully God and fully man in one unique Person. When He took on human flesh, He voluntarily laid aside the use of some of His divine attributes and took on the form of a servant for the sake of our salvation (Phil. 2:5-12). As a man, Jesus showed us how human life is to be lived in constant dependence on the Father and obedience to His will. The Jesus whom we should imitate is none other than the unique Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity in human flesh.
There is an unexplainable mystery here, in that although Jesus was fully God, yet as a man He had to grow spiritually. He increased in wisdom between birth and age 12 (2:40) and He made more progress in wisdom between age 12 and adulthood (2:52). Wisdom in the Hebrew Scriptures comes from a word meaning “skill.” The artisans who worked to build the Tabernacle had the God-given skill to take raw materials and form them into a beautiful finished product. Spiritually the wise man or woman takes the circumstances of life and weaves them into a beautiful finished product that gives glory to God.
The Word of God is the blueprint He has given us to follow if we want to construct a life that gives glory to Him and brings satisfaction and blessing to us. If you’ve ever built a home, you wouldn’t want to hire a contractor who showed up on the job with a bunch of lumber and started nailing it helter-skelter, grabbing whatever piece was close at hand. When you asked him about the plans, he laughed and said, “I never use plans. They’re too restrictive. I just go with the spirit of whatever seems right.”
And yet many Christians construct their lives in that fashion! They’ve hardly ever glanced at God’s blueprint, much less studied it so that they know how He wants them to live. If you challenge them about their haphazard ways, they accuse you of being legalistic and say that they just follow the Spirit. The fact that Jesus as a 12-year-old boy could intelligently interact with these Jewish teachers shows that He was already quite knowledgeable in the Scriptures. He was growing in wisdom, which implies applying God’s Word to daily life. Note four things about such growth:
Spiritual growth takes time, but we must actively engage in the process. The fact that Jesus was growing in wisdom and still increasing more in wisdom (2:40, 52) shows that it is a lifelong process. But it is not automatic. Jesus hungered and thirsted after such wisdom so much that He set aside some of the “normal” things children like to do so that He could learn the Scriptures. Joseph and Mary also show us that growth is a process. They did not yet understand exactly who Jesus was, but they were growing in that understanding. The question you must ask yourself is, “What am I doing to grow in the things of God?” Do you have a regular time in His Word and in prayer? Are you reading solid books that instruct you in the faith? Do you engage in spiritual discussions with other like-minded believers?
Spiritual growth involves an active interest in the Word of God. Think of all the interesting things in this bustling capital city that could have captivated the interest of a 12-year-old boy from the country. He could have been in the marketplace, watching the vendors haggling over prices with their customers. He could have been fascinated with the architecture of the palace and temple, or with the great walls of that ancient city. He could have joined with other boys in pretending that they were the great generals, defending those walls. He could have explored Hezekiah’s famous water tunnel, or any number of other interesting historical sites. He could have been watching the throngs of interesting people. Yet his parents found Him in the temple with the teachers, listening, asking intelligent questions, and giving answers that displayed unusual understanding (2:46, 47). If you want to grow in the things of God, like Jesus you must have a thirst for spiritual truth, demonstrated by listening to those who teach the Word, asking questions, and interacting on these great truths.
Spiritual growth should be focused in two directions: Toward God and toward others. Jesus grew “in favor with God and men” (2:52). These directions reflect the two great commandments, which are summaries of the two tables of the Ten Commandments, to love God with your total being, and to love your neighbor as yourself. In his introduction to Calvin’s Institutes, John McNeill quotes A. Mitchell Hunter who says, “Piety was the keynote of his character. He was a God-possessed soul. Theology was no concern to him as a study in itself; he devoted himself to it as a framework for the support of all that religion meant to him.” McNeill goes on to observe that “in Calvin’s pages we are everywhere confronting God, not toying with ideas or balancing opinions about him” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. by John McNeill [Westminster], 1:lii). Calvin rightly saw sound theology as the necessary foundation, but he argued that such doctrine “must enter our heart and pass into our daily living, and so transform us into itself that it may not be unfruitful for us” (ibid., 3.6.4). Always study the Word with a view to knowing and loving God and loving others.
Spiritual growth can get off track if we are not on guard. Here I am not looking at the example of Jesus, but at Joseph and Mary. They both meant well when they supposed that Jesus was with them in the caravan, but they were mistaken. And, neither of them understood Jesus’ gentle words of correction. This shows us that even godly people who mean well can be mistaken. Joseph and Mary’s failure to grasp the nature of Jesus’ mission and calling will later be matched by the disciples, who did not understand the necessity of the cross. This shows that we all must maintain teachable hearts and be willing to change our views when we have gotten off track. I regret that I used to teach much of the self-esteem errors that currently flood the church. God used Calvin’s Institutes to show me where I was wrong. Joseph and Mary were humble enough to receive correction from their 12-year-old Son. We must be teachable enough to receive correction from wherever God kindly brings it. We should imitate Jesus in spiritual growth.
This time in the temple, interacting on the things of God with these teachers, was undoubtedly the high point of Jesus’ life to this time. Then we read, “He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them” (2:51). What a letdown that must have been! To go back to boring Nazareth after the excitement of Jerusalem! To go back to the daily chores of carrying water and cleaning up in the carpenter shop after discussing theology with the leading rabbis in the temple! Yet Jesus went back and in the daily routine He continued to make progress “in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
Note also the routine faithfulness of Joseph and Mary. Luke 2:22 mentions their obedience to the Law of Moses in dedicating Jesus and in observing the purification laws. Verse 39 states how they performed everything according to the Law of the Lord. Verse 41 mentions their custom in going to the Feast of the Passover each year. This couple lived quietly in routine faithfulness to the commandments of God. If we had a son like Jesus, we would have said, “This kid is going to be a success some day! Did you see how the rabbis were amazed at His answers? Let’s enroll Him in the advanced track school for future rabbis. Let’s move to Jerusalem where He can be discovered by the leaders. The kid has a future!” But they took Him back to Nazareth and modeled for Him routine faithfulness in the things of God.
One of the chief concerns that parents should have is the welfare of their children’s souls. And one of the main ways you can help them spiritually is to live before them each day in routine faithfulness in the things of God—reading your Bible, prayer, regular church attendance, honesty, kindness toward one another in the family, concern for the lost. We should imitate Jesus and Joseph and Mary in routine faithfulness.
Even at age 12, Jesus was clear on the priority of His commitment to God’s purpose: “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” (2:49). Jesus here sets the priority of His commitment to the Heavenly Father even above His love for His parents. While we must love our family members, love for Jesus must take precedence if a conflict arises (Luke 14:26).
The word translated had to be means it is necessary. It is a term Luke often uses to set forth Jesus’ mission: “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose” (4:43). “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day” (9:22). (See also, 13:33 [go to Jerusalem]; 17:25 [suffer]; 19:5 [remain with Zaccheus]; 22:37 [be numbered with transgressors]; 24:7 [suffer, die, be raised]; 24:26 [suffer and come into glory]; and, 24:44 [Scripture about Him must be fulfilled].) This repeated word shows that Jesus did not come to do His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him.
Even so, if Jesus has redeemed us, we are not our own. He saved us for a purpose, and He gifted us so that we can spend our lives serving and glorifying Him. While not all are called into the pastorate or to go to a foreign culture with the gospel, every Christian is called to serve God in some capacity. If you don’t have a sense of mission and you are not engaged in fulfilling that mission, you are probably living for yourself. But the Bible calls us to no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who died and rose on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:15). We should imitate Jesus in our unswerving commitment to God’s purpose above all else.
An Irish legend tells of a king who disguised himself and went into the banquet hall of one of his barons. He was escorted to a lowly place among the throng who sat at the feast. The brilliance of his conversation and the nobility of his manner soon attracted the attention of someone with sufficient authority to escort him to a higher table. The same thing occurred once more, and soon he was seated among the nobles of the land. After a display of great wisdom, one of the lords spoke out, “In truth, sir, you speak like a king. If you are not a king, you deserve to be.” Then the king removed his disguise and took his rightful place among his subjects.
That is what should have happened when the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth. Although he was “disguised” as a lowly carpenter from Nazareth, He was the King of kings and Lord of lords. But His subjects were so blinded by their own pride and sin that they were not willing to bow before Him, even though He stated repeatedly and gave sufficient proof that He was the eternal God come down to redeem them. (Adapted from Donald Barnhouse, Let Me Illustrate [Revell], pp. 180, 181.)
Do you recognize Jesus as the Son of God, as your Savior and Lord? If not, ask God to open your eyes to who Jesus is so that you can receive Him. If He is your Savior, imitate Him in spiritual growth, in routine faithfulness, and in commitment to God’s purpose for your life.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
In 1984 Marla and I attended church while we were on vacation in San Diego. The speaker that morning had left the pastorate to get involved in the political movement known as the Religious Right. His topic was “The Second Most Important Day of Your Life.” He told us that the most important day of our lives was the day we trusted Christ as Savior. He got that right! But, the second most important day of our lives, he said, would be when we went to the polls and voted for Ronald Reagan for a second term!
Although I wouldn’t rank that day among the 100 most important days of my life, the man was right that day in his assessment of the moral decline of our nation. Problems like abortion, pornography, widespread sexual immorality, the breakdown of the family, violence, and the prohibition of any Christian expression in our public schools are alarming. I’m glad that there are some godly politicians and Christian leaders who are trying to fight these evils through the legislative process.
But I also believe that it is ultimately futile and misguided for Christians to put their hope in the political process to fix the rampant evils of our society. To try to bring America back to traditional family values and moral reform through politics is like trying to put a tuxedo on a pig. Even if you get it on him, it won’t do much long-term good, because you haven’t changed the nature of the pig. In times of moral declension, what the world needs most is not a political solution.
When times are bad, the message we need is the good news of God’s salvation.
Through the gospel, God goes to the heart of the problem, which is the human heart. When sinners repent and believe the gospel, they will change morally from the inside out. The preaching of the gospel is clearly God’s solution for the moral problems facing this evil world. Luke begins this new section that introduces the ministry of Jesus Christ by listing the political and spiritual leaders at the time when the forerunner, John the Baptist, began to preach. It illustrates that …
Luke lists these leaders to show us that the gospel is rooted in actual history. It is not a fairy story that illustrates spiritual or moral truths. It is true history that happened at a particular time and place. Because of several chronological problems, there is debate as to the exact year that John began his ministry, but it was somewhere around A.D. 29. Luke begins at the top: Tiberius was Caesar. He was the stepson of Augustus and reigned from A.D. 14-37. He was not a notoriously evil man, like his successor, Caligula, or his later successor, Nero, but neither was he a godly man. His mention reminds Luke’s readers that Rome had dominion over Israel.
Pontius Pilate was the governor of Judea from 26 to 36. He would become infamous for delivering Jesus over to be crucified in order to placate the Jewish leaders. Herod Antipas was the son of the wicked Herod the Great. He reigned over Galilee from 4 B.C. to A.D. 39. He would later imprison and then behead John. Herod’s brother Philip ruled over a region to the east and north of Galilee. Lysanias was governor of Abilene, further to the northeast.
The prominent spiritual leaders were Annas and Caiaphas, whom Luke mentions as sharing one high priesthood. Annas had been the high priest from A.D. 6 to 15, but had been deposed by the Roman authorities. Several of his sons and eventually his son-in-law, Caiaphas, replaced him (A.D. 18-36). But Annas wielded the power and retained the title, so that the two men could be referred to under one high priesthood. But even though it was a spiritual office, it is clear from the New Testament that neither of these men knew God or was concerned about spiritual matters. They were politicians who cared about their own power and prestige. It was in this corrupt political and spiritual situation, with Israel under Rome’s thumb, that John began his ministry.
It had been 400 years since there had been a prophet in Israel, calling the people to spiritual renewal and reform. Bad times abound, but times are especially bad when there is no word from the Lord. Those who knew God and waited for the consolation of Israel must have despaired at times. But they knew that what they needed was not better politicians. They needed a word from God.
God had prophesied through Isaiah and later through Malachi that He would send His messenger before the coming of Messiah (Isa. 40:1-3; Mal. 3:1; 4:5, 6). Finally, 400 years after Malachi, “there came a man sent from God whose name was John” (John 1:6). If you ask why God waited so long when the world was in such desperate need for the Savior, my answer is simple: I don’t know, and neither does anybody else. We do know that God is sovereign and all-wise and that He moves in history in His perfect time (Gal. 4:4).
In this dark time of political and spiritual corruption, “the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness” (Luke 3:2). That phrase should affect us like a beam of sunlight and a breath of fresh air would come to trapped miners: “The word of God came to John”! If Luke had said that in these bleak times the word of a new government plan to reduce poverty had come to Pilate, we would say, “So what?” If Luke had said that the word of a new program to increase religious involvement among the Jews had come to Annas and Caiaphas, we would say, “Ho hum!” What the world needs when times are bad is not new political or religious programs. The world needs a word from God.
John was not in Rome or Jerusalem, the centers of power. He was in the wilderness. God often works apart from worldly channels. John was not sitting out there cooking up his plan for how to have a successful ministry. The text literally reads, “The word of God came upon John.” G. Campbell Morgan observes, “The force of the preposition is that of pressure from above. The word of the Lord came upon him, pressed down upon him from above. Here is the qualification for preaching. The message of God comes upon a man” (The Gospel According to Luke [Revell], pp. 47-48).
I agree with Morgan and other commentators that a man needs a special call from God to preach His Word. It need not be mystical or miraculous, but he needs a strong inner sense that God has called him to the work. Otherwise, when tough times of discouragement or opposition come, as they surely will if a man preaches the truth, he will not stay in the battle.
A man who preaches God’s Word must always remember that it is not his own word or ideas that he proclaims, but God’s Word. Sometimes, as we will see in a moment, God’s Word is not warm, fuzzy and popular. If a preacher becomes a man-pleaser, he ceases to please God (Gal. 1:10). Instead of proclaiming God’s Word, he becomes a politician trying to keep his popularity ratings high.
During the Gulf War, a man wrote to his senator urging him to support the ejection of Iraq from Kuwait. He received two separate replies from the senator’s office. The first letter agreed with him and stated the senator’s strong support for President Bush’s response to the crisis. The second letter, sent by mistake, thanked the man for opposing the war and pointed out that the senator had voted against the war resolution! That senator was like another politician who was asked where he stood on an issue. He said, “I have friends who are for it and friends who are against it, and I am with my friends.”
In bad times we desperately need an authoritative word from God, proclaimed by His faithful messenger. What is that word?
John came “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (3:3). The message of forgiveness of sins addresses all people everywhere in every age, because all have sinned and thus are alienated from God. The primary need of every person is reconciliation with God through the forgiveness of his sins.
Luke quotes from Isaiah 40:3-5 to show that John’s ministry was a fulfillment of that prophecy. The Hebrew text is translated, “Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it,” i.e., God’s glory. But Luke reads, “all flesh will see the salvation of God,” because he is not quoting from the Hebrew version, but from the Greek Septuagint (LXX, ca. 200 B.C.). The LXX added the phrase “salvation of God” as “a contextual equivalent” (Darrel Bock, Luke [Baker], 1:291), where “salvation” explains more specifically the way in which men will see God’s glory, namely, through His saving work in Jesus Christ. God is glorified when people are reconciled to Him through the atonement Christ provided on the cross. Note three things about this salvation the world so desperately needs:
“The salvation of God” means that God is the originator and provider of salvation. Luke has already used this particular word in 2:30, where Simeon holds the baby Jesus and proclaims, “My eyes have seen Your salvation.” What we are saved from is our sin and the impending judgment of God because of our sin. Thus a key element in salvation is the forgiveness of sins (3:3; see Luke 1:77). Since only God can forgive sins, and the Bible is clear that He does it only by His free grace, no man can save himself by earning it through any amount of good deeds or human merit or effort. Salvation comes totally from God who planned it before the foundation of the world, announced it through His prophets, and sent His messenger John and His Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The great British preacher, Charles Spurgeon, tells of the time, just months after his conversion at age 15, when it dawned on him that his salvation was totally from God. He was sitting in church when, he says (Autobiography [Banner of Truth], 1:165),
The thought struck me, “How did you come to be a Christian?” I sought the Lord. “But how did you come to seek the Lord?” The truth flashed across my mind in a moment—I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, … and I desire to make this my constant confession, “I ascribe my change wholly to God.”
Writing to his father about this experience, he said, “I trust that I feel sufficiently the corruption of my own heart to know that, instead of doing one iota to forward my own salvation, my old corrupt heart would impede it, were it not that my Redeemer is mighty, and works as He pleases” (ibid., p. 115).
Salvation by man’s efforts or merits does not have the power to change the corrupt human heart. But God is mighty to save. The only message that will bring relief to this evil world is the message that salvation is from the Lord.
“John came preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” God’s message to a lost and hurting world begins with the issue of sin. Jesus taught that when the Holy Spirit came, He would convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8). Until people are brought before God in His holiness and wrath against all sin, they do not realize their desperate situation. They justify themselves by comparing themselves with others, and they think that God will be tolerant on the day of judgment. So they assume that all will be okay on that day.
In a great section in his Institutes of the Christian Religion ([Westminster Press], 3.12.1), John Calvin argues that we can never be justified before God by our own good works. He points out that before we compare ourselves with one another and so acquit ourselves, we need to remember that we will one day stand, not before a human court, but before God’s heavenly court. He asks:
How shall we reply to the Heavenly Judge when he calls us to account? Let us envisage for ourselves that Judge, not as our minds naturally imagine him, but as he is depicted for us in Scripture: by whose brightness the stars are darkened [Job 3:9]; by whose strength the mountains are melted; by whose wrath the earth is shaken [cf. Job9:5-6]; whose wisdom catches the wise in their craftiness [Job xamine the deeds of men: Who will stand confident before his throne?
Luke’s quote from Isaiah 40:3-5 shows us in figurative language the problem that sinful human hearts have in receiving the King of kings and His salvation. Isaiah pictures the scene when a king announced that he would visit a remote village. The rocky, twisted, up-and-down mountain trail was good enough for the villagers, but it was not suitable for the king. The village needed to get a road crew out there to straighten out the path, to fill in the ravines and level the mountains in the way, to remove the rocks and fill in the potholes, so that the king had a smooth, straight road for his arrival.
It’s a spiritual picture. If we just have to do with one another, we can tolerate the twisted, rocky, potholed ways of our heart. But if the King of Glory is coming, we’re in big trouble! Our hearts are full of ravines of sin and impurity. There are mountains of pride and self-righteousness in the way. We walk the crooked paths of deceit and falsehood. There are the rough, rocky, and potholed roads of greed, jealousy, self-will, blame, and disobedience. The King doesn’t travel on those kinds of roads!
Don’t misapply the analogy. It is not teaching that you must remove every trace of sin and corruption before you can receive the King into your life. That would be impossible! But the Holy Spirit must convict you of the awful sinfulness of your heart, so that you recognize your desperate need for God’s salvation. You must face the bad news about yourself as a sinner before you can welcome God’s gracious salvation.
Repentance and faith are often linked in Scripture and are the flip sides of the same coin. Repentance has the main idea of turning (Luke 1:16, 17) or changing one’s thinking and behavior. It involves recognizing our sin and alienation from God so that, rather than continuing in the same direction of self-will and disobedience, we turn back to God and appeal to His mercy. Faith is the hand that receives God’s mercy or grace. Faith lays hold of Jesus Christ as the perfect Substitute who died for our sins. Forgiveness means that God releases us from the penalty of our sins because His Son Jesus bore that penalty for us, and we are trusting in Him. Thus in summarizing the gospel message to the disciples after the resurrection, Jesus said, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46, 47).
Repentance and faith are not something you must do to earn salvation. The shed blood of Christ merited salvation for every sinner who will lay hold of Him. Repentance and faith are God’s gracious gifts that enable us to receive His mercy. J. C. Ryle explains,
There is nothing meritorious in this. It forms no part whatever of the price of our redemption. Our salvation is all of grace, from first to last. But the great fact still remains, that saved souls are always penitent souls, and that saving faith in Christ, and true repentance toward God, are never found asunder (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Baker], 2:87).
The Scriptures instruct the person who has repented and believed in Jesus Christ to confess that faith in water baptism. John’s baptism was a unique rite that pointed people ahead to the promised Messiah. It pictured God’s washing or purification from sins, but it was not complete apart from what Messiah would do in offering Himself as the Lamb of God, the perfect sin-bearer. That is why, when Paul later found some disciples of John in Ephesus, who did not know about Jesus Christ, when they believed he baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 19:1-6).
For those who have believed in Christ, baptism is a public confession that symbolizes what Jesus Christ has done spiritually for the one who has believed. He has washed us from all of our sins and He has identified us totally with His death, burial, and resurrection to new life. Since the word “baptism” means dipping, and since going completely under the water best pictures what baptism means, immersion is the best mode of baptism. If you look up every occurrence of “baptism” in the New Testament, you will find that it always has reference to believers, and never to infants who cannot yet believe. If you have believed in Christ and know that He has forgiven your sins by His grace, you should be baptized in obedience to His command (Matt. 28:19).
In the early 18th century, England was infected with a plague of materialism. The gap between the rich and poor was widening, but moral degeneracy marked every level of society. The Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, led an openly immoral life and often made fun of virtue. Moral laxity pervaded the nation. Drunkenness, gambling, and cruel amusements were an obsession. Crime was rampant, and criminal law was unfair and barbarous, making criminals only more desperate. The Church of England had, for the most part, ceased to be a vital force. Many ridiculed and railed at the Christian faith without reserve (these conditions summarized from A. Skevington Wood, The Inextinguishable Blaze [Eerdmans], pp. 9-16).
God broke into this dismal and seemingly hopeless situation by saving a young man, George Whitefield, who had been raised in his mother’s inn and tavern. His friends, John and Charles Wesley, also were saved out of their legalistic religion to a living faith in the Redeemer. Through these men, the good news of God’s salvation spread to that decadent society and saved it from the brink of anarchy and revolution. In his biography of Whitefield, Arnold Dallimore observes (George Whitefield [Cornerstone Books], 1:25),
We shall need to remember that it was among a people broken by gin that Whitefield and the Wesleys went about in the nobility of their ministries and that there was triumphant meaning to Charles Wesley’s lines on the deliverance effected by the Gospel:
Hear Him, ye deaf! His praise ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap ye lame for joy!
He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free!
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me!
That same liberating, powerful message is what we need for our dismal, spiritually dark times. Let’s believe it, live it, proclaim it, and pray that God would break through in our day with His powerful Word of salvation!
Copyright 1998, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
When Marla and I lived in California, we needed to buy new carpet for our house. We checked around and found out that the best prices were at a place in San Bernardino called “Crazy Frank’s.” “Great,” I said, “what’s his phone number?” “Well, Crazy Frank had his phone taken out years ago because people just bugged him all the time by calling to ask about prices.”
“Oh, well, where is Crazy Frank’s located?” “He doesn’t have a sign. It fell down years ago, and he never bothered to put it back. It’s on such and such a corner. Just look for a window with a lot of rolls of carpet inside. The old sign is leaning against the front of the building. And, one more thing: Expect to be abused. Crazy Frank doesn’t deal politely with his customers.”
Marla went down to Crazy Frank’s one day by herself while I was working. Sure enough, Crazy Frank was rude and abusive. He told her to get out of his store because she wasn’t serious about buying carpet. But, we went back together. While I was there, I heard Frank swear angrily at another customer who left his store in a huff. But we finally bought carpet from Crazy Frank.
Why would anybody put up with such inconvenience and abuse to buy carpet from that man? How could he stay in business when he treated customers that way? The answer was simple: he had by far the cheapest prices on carpet anywhere in town. A competitor told me that he couldn’t buy carpet pad wholesale for what Crazy Frank sold it to me retail. If saving money was your goal, you had to put up with Crazy Frank’s abuse to get his prices.
Crazy Frank was no prophet and he certainly was not a godly man. But as I studied this portion of Luke’s Gospel, I must admit that John the Baptist made me remember Crazy Frank. The parallel account in Matthew tells us that part of John’s audience consisted of the influential Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious leaders from Jerusalem. If you wanted to market your ministry and to succeed in the religious climate of the day, surely you would want to court the endorsement of these men. But John saw them coming and said, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Obviously John had not taken the Dale Carnegie course in “How to Win Friends and Influence People”!
Why were people flocking way out to the wilderness, where John had no phone, no sign, and not even an air-conditioned building, in fact, no building at all, to hear him hurl such abuse at them? The answer was simple: There had been no word from God for 400 years, and the people knew that John was not preaching his own word, but God’s word. They knew that he spoke the truth. Even though it offended the religious leaders, who left without submitting to God’s word through John (Luke 7:30), many received John’s message, repented of their sins, and were baptized. They knew that John truthfully spoke God’s word to them.
When we come to a portion of Scripture like this, we need to be careful. It’s easy to be offended by it, because it lays the axe to the root of our hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and pride. It doesn’t build our self-esteem to be called a brood of vipers! If we get offended and respond defensively, we will go away like the Pharisees and Sadducees did, comfortable with the veneer of our religiosity. But we will not be prepared to face the wrath to come.
The proper way to respond to this text is to respond as we would to a surgeon who said, “You have cancer and if you don’t submit to the treatment immediately, it will take your life. But, even though the treatment is painful, if you will submit to it, we can cure you.” You might be able to go find a quack somewhere who would tell you that you are wonderful and that you don’t need to worry about your cancer. Just take these sugarcoated pills once a day and you will feel fine. But if you have cancer, you need the truth. God’s message for us through John the Baptist is,
Because of God’s impending wrath, we must make sure that our repentance is true, not false.
Verses 7-9 warn us of the dangers of false repentance. Verses 10-14 show us the nature of true repentance.
The theme of 3:7-9 is clearly that of warning. John mentions “the wrath to come,” “the axe …already laid at the root of the trees,” and that “every tree … that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Furthermore, he anticipates the excuse that his Jewish audience would raise, that they were exempt from God’s judgment because they were children of Abraham. He shows them that it was not valid. His warning shows that there is such a thing as false or superficial repentance and that it will not deliver a person from the impending wrath of God. Therefore, we need to be sure that we can identify and avoid such deception.
John’s pointed question, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” questions the motives of his listeners. Even though they may go through the outward ritual of water baptism, they needed to examine their hearts. Were they truly repentant toward God for their personal sins or were they just following the religious fad of the moment? The picture behind John’s language was that when there was a brush fire, or when a farmer would burn the stubble from his field, any snakes in the grass would escape ahead of the flames. But as soon as they were safe, they would resume their subtle, crooked, poisonous ways, because their nature as snakes had not been changed. They were just trying to save their skins so that they could go on with their snake-in-the-grass ways.
In the same way, false repentance is just outward and oriented toward self, not toward God. The falsely repentant person may momentarily fear God’s judgment and “receive Christ.” He may go to an evangelistic rally where many go forward, and since his life has not been happy and he wants to be happy, he joins the crowd at the front. But he has not faced the corruption of his heart before God. He is not truly sorrowful for offending God’s holiness. He does not cry out to God for a new heart that will hate sin and love righteousness. Like Esau, he may regret, even with tears, that he has lost his birthright. Like Judas, he may feel badly that he has betrayed the Son of God for a few pieces of silver. But his repentance is just superficial and outward, not a matter of the heart.
The religious leaders among John’s crowd would have agreed that repentance was a good thing for the tax collectors and other “sinners” in the crowd, but they did not apply it to themselves because they assumed that they were basically good people. After all, they kept the Law of Moses. They observed the religious rituals. They tithed their money. And, besides, they were children of Abraham. God had promised to bless the seed of Abraham. They knew that God would judge the heathen someday, but they were not like those despised wretches.
But John—how dare him—does not call them the children of Abraham, but the children of vipers! He preaches the same message to the religious leaders as he does to the tax collectors and prostitutes: “You must truly repent and bring forth fruit in keeping with your repentance.” John cuts beneath the religious veneer and says, “I don’t’ care how religious your background! Your heart is just as corrupt as those who are outwardly sinful. Your pride in thinking that by your own goodness you can stand in God’s holy presence is just as offensive to God as the greed of the tax collectors or the immorality of the prostitute.” God’s view of the human race is repeatedly stated in the Hebrew Scriptures:
Gen. 6:5: Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Gen. 8:21: …the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth.
Ps. 14:2, 3: The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
Ps. 51:5: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.
Isa. 64:6: For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;…
Believing in the basic goodness of the human heart is one of Satan’s most pernicious errors. But we cannot truly repent if we cling to the notion that we have anything in ourselves to commend us to God. The axe must be laid to the root of self-righteousness.
The fearsomeness of the judgment is described by the words, “wrath,” “axe,” and “fire.” Who can endure the holy wrath of the infinite God? Who can stand if the arm of the Lord is swinging the axe against him? Who can be thrown into the Lake of Fire without terrible consequence? Just because His judgment is delayed does not mean that it will not happen. To deny that a terrible day of judgment is coming, you’d have to tear out of your Bible the Book of Revelation plus many other passages, including many words of the Lord Jesus. J. C. Ryle (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Baker], 2:90) comments,
Let us beware of being wise above that which is written, and more charitable than Scripture itself. Let the language of John the Baptist be deeply graven in our hearts. Let us never be ashamed to avow our firm belief, that there is a “wrath to come” for the impenitent, and that it is possible for a man to be lost as well as to be saved. To be silent on the subject is positive treachery to men’s souls. It only encourages them to persevere in wickedness, and fosters in their minds the devil’s old delusion, “Ye shall not surely die.” That minister is surely our best friend who tells us honestly of danger, and warns us, like John the Baptist, to “flee the wrath to come.”
Once at a funeral service I conducted I noticed that the remembrance card had John 3:16 printed on it. But it was printed as follows: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him should have eternal life.” What was missing? The words not perish, but! I don’t know if the family had requested it printed that way or if the funeral parlor had done it, but I pointed it out to those in attendance. There are only two eternal destinies: Either you believe in Jesus Christ and have eternal life, or you perish! Because God will certainly judge all false repentance, we must be careful to make sure that we are truly repentant.
As we saw last week, the main idea in biblical repentance is turning from sin to God. If we truly have turned from sin to God, our lives will show it. Our thinking, emotions, attitudes, and behavior will be different. Repentance is a lifelong process for the believer, but it must begin at a certain point:
Before a person is repentant, he denies or excuses or justifies the sinfulness of his own heart. A well-known pastor who preaches a false gospel recently stated, “I’m very proud of who I am…. I have not broken a single one of the Ten Commandments. I have not broken any of the teachings of Jesus Christ, and so I’m proud of my faith and my message.” It is clear that that man does not know Jesus Christ, because the Bible says, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). Those who have truly repented before God have confessed their sin and their need for a Savior. They have given up all false hopes for right standing before God, whether it be their own religious heritage, their good deeds, or their good intentions. As Charles Spurgeon put it, “You will be as surely damned by your righteousness, if you trust in it, as you will by your unrighteousness” (Spurgeon’s Expository Encyclopedia [Baker], 14:305).
When John tells his hearers that they must not put confidence in their religious heritage as children of Abraham, he also hints at their true need, namely, that God would impart life to their stony hearts: “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” God had promised through Ezekiel (36:26, 27):
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
Thus true repentance recognizes the sinfulness of my heart and realizes that I am powerless to correct the situation because of the weakness and corruption of my flesh. So I cry out to God for a new heart, and He graciously provides what I cannot do. He imparts a new nature to me that loves righteousness and longs to obey Him. He gives me His Holy Spirit to empower me to walk in His ways. Just as a tree bears fruit according to its nature, so the truly repentant soul begins to bear fruit according to this new nature, fruit that pleases God and is observed by others.
Howard Marshall (Commentary on Luke [Eerdmans], p. 143) clarifies an important point: “Such works are the expression of repentance or conversion, and not, …[the] means of securing merit in the sight of God, since the possibility of repentance is due in the first place to God.” Or, as John Calvin explains (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], “Harmony of the Gospels,” pp. 189, 190, italics his), “It ought to be observed, that good works (Titus 3:8) are here called fruits of repentance: for repentance is an inward matter, which has its seat in the heart and soul, but afterwards yields its fruits in a change of life.” Calvin also points out (pp. 192, 193) how hypocrites often try to prove themselves as worshipers of God by outward ceremonies. But they can’t fake the deeds described here by John, since such deeds require them to dip into their pocketbooks.
When those in the crowd who were convicted of their sin asked John, “What shall we do?” you might have expected John to say, “Eat locusts and wild honey and live as simply as I do.” But he did not. He could have said, “Keep the rituals in the temple faithfully.” But he didn’t say that. His answers are refreshingly simple and practical. Each answer relates to the second table of the Law, our relationship with our neighbor. As the apostle John put it, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20). John the Baptist is saying that the fruits of repentance will be seen in the way we relate to others, especially in the particular station in life where we live and work.
Also, note that each of the fruits of repentance mentioned by John relates to possessions or money. John’s teaching here is not comprehensive, of course. Those who are truly repentant will be growing in the many other areas mentioned in the Bible. But, as Jesus points out in Luke 16:10-13, our stewardship of the money God has entrusted to us is the litmus test of whether we will be faithful in more important matters. While we all must grow in this area, and fruit takes time to ripen, those who are truly repentant will be growing in these three areas that John mentions.
True repentance will bear the fruit of generosity toward the needy.
“Let the man who has two tunics share with him who has none; and let him who has food do likewise” (3:11). The word “tunic” refers to an undershirt worn under the coat or outer tunic. John is not advocating communism nor is he saying that it is wrong to own more than one change of clothes. Rather, he is advocating the simple generosity that comes from the attitude, “God has met my needs and this poor man could use what I have an abundance of. I’ll give it to him.”
I also add that John’s statements do not represent the entire biblical teaching on helping the poor. Paul states that if a man will not work, neither should he eat (2 Thess. 3:10). The Book of Proverbs mocks the foolish sluggard who refuses to work, save, and plan for the future, and then is in want. Such people may need temporary financial help, but they also need correction and instruction. If they refuse to act responsibly, they will have to face the consequences. But at the same time, we must seek to treat others as we would want to be treated if we were in their situation. We can’t close our hearts toward a person who is truly in need when we have the means to help. One fruit of repentance is growing generosity.
True repentance will bear the fruit of honesty without greed in business.
In the Roman system, tax collectors would bid with the government for the tax business in a certain region. The high bidder would get the contract, and then he would be free to pocket everything he collected above his bid. Obviously, such a system was subject to great abuse. The Jews hated their countrymen who went into such a corrupt business.
But John doesn’t tell the tax collectors to get out of that line of work. Rather, he tells them, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to” (3:13). In other words, be honest and don’t be greedy. Do your job in a fair and upright manner.
It always grieves me when I hear of businessmen who profess to be Christians, but they are dishonest and greedy in the way they do business. True repentance isn’t compartmentalized into Sunday mornings. It affects the way you act in your business the rest of the week. This is one reason, by the way, that a Christian should not be yoked with a non-Christian in a business partnership (2 Cor. 6:14-18). The non-Christian will want to cheat and cut corners, especially if being honest means losing money. But the Christian should be committed to being honest even if it costs him. Integrity is more important for the Christian than money.
True repentance will bear the fruit of not abusing power for personal gain.
Again, John does not tell the soldiers to get out of their particular line of work. God approves of civil government, which necessarily includes law enforcement and proper national defense. But John does tell the soldiers not to abuse their power for personal gain, and to be content with their wages. This would not be easy when you saw your fellow-soldiers using the system to fill their own pockets, while you’re scraping by with low wages. It would be easy to rationalize, “Everyone does it; it’s the way the system works.” But the repentant soldier will not go along with the flow. He will practice the golden rule toward others and he will deal with his own greed by learning contentment in the Lord.
There are three possible responses to a straightforward message like John’s: Some will be offended and walk away without any repentance. They will face God’s coming wrath. Others will be superficially repentant. They will put on the cosmetics of outward change, but they won’t honestly face the corruption of their hearts. They, too, will face God’s coming wrath, probably with great surprise. The third response is to be truly repentant, to realize the sinfulness of your heart, to turn to God and appeal to Him for a new heart and a clean conscience through the blood of Christ. These will go on to grow the fruits of repentance.
John’s abrupt style might offend you, like Crazy Frank’s style offended his customers. But remember, Crazy Frank had by far the cheapest prices in town. And especially remember, John the Baptist spoke the true word of God. It’s far better to “shop at Crazy John’s” and save your soul than to walk away offended and face the wrath to come!
Copyright, 1998, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
If you are a Christian, then one of your deepest longings is to see others come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. And yet who among us has not felt tongue-tied when an opportunity to tell someone about Christ was staring us in the face?
I still remember an incident from my college days over 30 years ago. I was in a group discussion class where our grade depended on having interesting discussions that captured the attention of the rest of the class. So we would discuss subjects such as sex, drugs, sex, racism, sex, politics, sex, etc. On every issue, I took the biblical view of things, although I didn’t openly identify myself as a Christian. A guy named Ralph always took the liberal, worldly view. He favored free sex, homosexuality, drug use, and everything else that I was against.
After one class, he came up to me and said, “I want to ask you a question: Are you for real, or are you just putting us on in there?” He caught me off guard and I didn’t know what to say, so I just said, “Yeah, that’s really the way I am.” But I never mentioned Jesus Christ as the reason for why I believed in moral behavior. Over the years as I’ve thought of my failure, I have prayed for Ralph, that God would bring along another Christian who would boldly tell him about the Savior. It was my failure in that situation that motivated me to get some training in how to share my faith.
I believe that it is very helpful for every Christian to receive training in how to share the good news about Jesus Christ. While I cannot provide such training in a single message, I do want to go over some essentials that we must cover if we want to point people to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Our method and manner of presenting these truths will vary, but in some way people must clearly understand these issues.
John the Baptist’s life and ministry pointed people to Jesus Christ. As John 1:8 explains of John, “He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light.” In our text, we see how John pointed people to Christ. It is significant that at the beginning of the passage, people are speculating about whether John himself might be the Christ. But by the end, where Luke reports Jesus’ baptism, even though John was the one doing the baptizing, he isn’t even mentioned! John has completely faded from view and, as with the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, we are left with Jesus alone and a voice from heaven confirming Him. Even so, if we want to be used by God to point people to the Savior, we must fade from view and leave the person with Jesus alone, along with the divine testimony, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.” That God the Father is well-pleased with God the Son is at the foundation of the gospel message we are to proclaim.
Luke uses this section to take John, the forerunner, off the scene and to authenticate the person of Jesus Christ, whose official ministry is inaugurated in Luke 4:14. The genealogy of Jesus (3:23-38) and His temptation (4:1-13) also serve to authenticate Him. Darrell Bock (Luke [Baker], 1:345) comments,
The emphasis here is that heaven has spoken. God has revealed his choice. Much as a political party puts its stamp on a presidential candidate, so here God has shown who will accomplish his plan….
The testimony of heaven is that Jesus is the beloved Son. When God speaks, the reader is to listen.
From John’s ministry and from the Father’s testimony, we can learn three elements that we must employ if we want to point people to Christ:
Pointing people to Christ requires confronting their sin, warning of the reality of the coming judgment, and exalting His supremacy over all.
As we have seen, John’s message is summed up as “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3). Repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ are at the heart of the gospel. A person who does not see and feel himself to be a sinner has no reason to need a Savior. If I came up to you and said, “I have great news! The governor has just offered you a pardon from prison,” you would not be very thrilled with that news, and you might even be offended. Why? You are not guilty of any crime deserving of prison. But, if you have just been convicted of a serious crime and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, my announcement would be the most welcome news you could imagine.
If you walk up to a person who is not a Christian and say, “I have great news! God loves you and Jesus Christ died for your sins,” the person will not appreciate your message and he might even get offended. He will think, “Of course God loves me! God is love and I’m a basically loveable person! But as for this sin stuff, I’m only human and I have my faults, but I’m not that bad of a person. Why do I need Jesus to die for my sins?”
How do you get a person who thinks of himself as basically good to see the utter sinfulness of his own heart so that he will see his need for the Savior? God’s method is to preach His perfect Law to the sinner so that he sees how utterly he has failed to keep that Law. “Through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” so that a man sees that he is accountable before God (Rom. 3:19, 20). Thus the Law becomes “our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24).
We see in Luke 3:19 that John the Baptist preached the Law even to Herod Antipas. Herod had divorced his own wife and seduced Herodias, the wife of his half-brother, who was also his own niece. By so doing, he was guilty of both adultery and incest. John confronted Herod with this violation of God’s Law, along with other wicked things that he had done. We don’t know if John did this in a private interview with Herod, through a sermon when Herod was present in the audience, or if John’s public rebuke of Herod in his absence got back to him. But John boldly proclaimed that the ruler was under the same Law of God as the common person. Sadly, Herod did not respond with repentance, but rather added to his many sins by locking John up in prison and later executing him. But in spite of the consequences, John didn’t soften the message, because he knew that neither Herod nor anyone else would come to Christ unless he was first convicted of his sin.
Herod’s treatment of John should alert us to the fact that we may not be warmly welcomed when we bring up the matter of a person’s sin. But even so, we must remember that we do no one a favor by tiptoeing around the sin issue. Modern evangelicalism has fallen into the trap of marketing the gospel as the way to have a happy life, but we often minimize or sidestep the serious nature of sin. But until a person comes under the conviction of the Holy Spirit so that he sees that he is justly guilty before God, he will not appreciate God’s grace that was shown to us in the cross of Christ. Being forgiven little, he will love Christ little.
The Bible tells us that sinners are “darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness” (Eph. 4:18, 19). Obviously, we cannot break through all the defenses that sinners have erected to justify themselves as they continue their course of sin. Only God by His mighty power can break through their hardened hearts and reveal Christ to their souls. He does it primarily through His Word, both written and preached.
Thus one of the best ways you can confront a sinner with his sin is to get him to read the New Testament. He won’t be five chapters into Matthew until he reads that if he has been angry with his brother, he has broken the commandment not to murder. If he has lusted after a woman in his heart, he has broken God’s commandment against adultery. You can also give him tapes of sermons by preachers who preach God’s Law. We have an excellent video in our church library, “The Ten Cannons of God’s Law,” by Pastor Ray Comfort, that will help you understand how to use God’s Law in your witnessing to bring people to conviction of sin. But remember, you are not really pointing a person to Jesus Christ unless you help him to see that he is a guilty sinner, under the just condemnation of God’s holy Law.
John the Baptist made it clear that the coming of Jesus the Messiah would cause a division among people. Some would be wheat gathered into His barn, but others would be chaff which He would burn up with unquenchable fire (3:17). This illustration was familiar to all of John’s hearers. When a farmer harvested his crop, he would thresh the grain with a heavy sledge that separated the kernel of wheat from the outer shell or chaff. Then he would take a shovel-like winnowing fork and throw the wheat and chaff into the air when there was a breeze. The chaff would blow to the side, while the heavier wheat would fall to the ground. The chaff would be swept up for burning.
It is a picture of God’s coming judgment. There will be only two destinies. Either by God’s grace through the new birth, you become wheat and bear fruit unto eternal life; or, by remaining hardened in your sin, you live a life that is fruitless in light of God’s purposes and you will go into unquenchable fire. The Greek word for “unquenchable” is asbestos. While the flames of hell are probably figurative language, God uses the most frightening imagery possible to warn us that the torments of that place of eternal punishment are so awful that no one would dare risk going there!
Along with playing down the seriousness of sin, modern evangelicalism often sidesteps the horrors of hell. The mood of our culture is tolerance, love, and forgiveness. We don’t want to punish prisoners, but to rehabilitate them. If, after years of appeals, a murderer is actually put to death, we do it in the most painless way possible, through lethal injection. But even that form of capital punishment is opposed by many. As a result, when we talk to sinners about the gospel, we feel like we have to apologize for God and skirt around the unpleasant matter of hell. The dominant theme of our message is, “God loves you just the way you are.” But the Bible clearly warns that “he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).
In personal witnessing, people need to know that if they do not repent and believe in Jesus Christ, they are simply storing up wrath for themselves in the day of the righteous judgment of God (Rom. 2:5). While this may be difficult news, it is ultimately good news. Note Luke 3:18: John’s warnings of judgment are described as his preaching the good news to the people. If it is true that God’s awful judgment is ahead, then even though it may not be pleasant to think about, it is eternally good news to tell people that God has provided the way of escape. We have not told them the gospel if we dodge the warning of God’s coming judgment.
Again, one of the best ways of communicating this is simply to let the person read the Bible. Jesus spoke more about hell than anyone else. Let the person read Jesus’ words, so that you get out of the way and he stands face to face with the Word of God. The idea that basically decent people will all go to heaven someday apart from repentance and faith in Christ is radically opposed to the Word of God. We must warn sinners of the coming judgment.
John the Baptist would later say about Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). John was not jealously trying to promote himself and his ministry. He wanted people to look beyond him to Jesus alone. Even though in the flesh he could have tried to capitalize on the wave of popularity over his ministry, John humbled himself and exalted Jesus Christ. We must imitate his example in our witness to the lost. To do this …
John tells people that his baptism is merely with water, but that Jesus’ baptism is far more powerful, since it will be with the Holy Spirit and fire. More of this in a moment, but for now the point is that John humbled himself and pointed people to Christ. Also, John humbled himself by acknowledging that he was not even worthy to untie the thong of Jesus’ sandals. This was viewed as such a degrading act that even Hebrew slaves were not required to do it.
If we want to point sinners to Jesus, we must humble ourselves so that they do not stumble over us. Sometimes we Christians come across to unbelievers as if we are not sinners. They usually smell the hypocrisy and turn away in disgust. We need to let lost people know that by nature, we are the same as they are. We are just beggars telling other beggars where they can find the Bread of Life.
Jesus is exalted here both by the witness of John and by the witness of God the Father at His baptism. We see that …
Jesus is supreme in the power and holiness of His person.
John confesses that Jesus is “mightier” than he is and that he is not worthy to untie Jesus’ sandal thong. It is not an easy thing for a man to admit that another man is mightier than he is. But John knew that even though Jesus was younger than he was, Jesus existed before him (John 1:30) because Jesus is God in human flesh. By His power, He holds the very universe together (Col. 1:17). The miracles He performed bear witness to His power. Liberal scholars who explain away Jesus’ miracles are not bearing witness to the Jesus of the Bible. He is Almighty God and nothing less!
By saying that he was not worthy to untie Jesus’ sandal thong, John was acknowledging the inherent holiness of Jesus’ person. John was a godly man by human standards, but in his heart he knew that he wasn’t even in the same league with Jesus. Jesus later could ask His critics, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” (John 8:46). He repeatedly claimed that He was obedient to the Father’s will and spoke only what the Father commanded (John5:19, 30;
Jesus is supreme in the power and effects of His ministry.
When John contrasts his water baptism with Jesus’ baptism by the Holy Spirit and fire, he is saying that Jesus does inwardly what John’s ministry outwardly symbolizes. A person can go through the outward ritual of water baptism, but it is of no effect unless Jesus does a supernatural work in his heart through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire.
How should we interpret this baptism of the Spirit and fire? There are several views. There is only one preposition (“with,” Greek, en) governing the two words (the NIV is incorrect in repeating “with”), so that it refers to one baptism. Thus it seems to me that this baptism must apply to one group, those who respond to the gospel. The Holy Spirit regenerates these people and progressively purges them from their sins by His purifying fire. The unquenchable fire of verse 17 refers to the eternal punishment of those who reject the gospel. Alexander Maclaren (Expositions of Holy Scripture [Baker], Luke, p. 76) explains it this way, “Either we shall gladly accept the purging fire of the Spirit which burns sin out of us, or we shall have to meet the punitive fire which burns up us and our sins together. To be cleansed by the one or to be consumed by the other is the choice before each of us.”
The point is, Jesus is the Person who by His coming divides all humanity into two eternal camps. Either you repent of your sins and believe in Him, resulting in His giving you the Holy Spirit to empower you and purge sin out of your life. Or, you go on in your sins and die in them, facing the terrifying fire of eternal judgment.
Jesus is supreme in the powerful affirmation of Him by the Father and by the Holy Spirit.
The way Luke presents Jesus’ baptism minimizes John’s role (he is not even mentioned) and even downplays the baptism itself. Rather Luke emphasizes that after the baptism, while Jesus was praying, heaven was opened, the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and a voice came out of heaven affirming, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
The fact that Jesus would even submit to baptism signifies that at the outset of His ministry, He identified Himself with the sinners He came to save. Luke emphasizes Jesus’ prayer life, which shows His dependence as the Son of Man on the Heavenly Father (there are seven references to Jesus praying in Luke: 3:21 [baptism]; 5:16 [growing fame]; 6:12 [choosing the 12]; 9:18 [just before Peter’s confession]; 9:29 [Transfiguration]; 11:1 [before Lord’s Prayer]; and, 22:41 [Gethsemane]).
The fact that heaven was opened shows that in Jesus, God was breaking into human history. The Holy Spirit’s descent as a dove probably points to the gentleness and purity of the Spirit, and also shows the Holy Trinity united in the launching of Jesus’ ministry. The affirmation of the Father from heaven relates to two Old Testament texts: Psalm 2:7, where the Father says of Messiah, “You are My Son”; and, Isaiah 42:1, “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.” (Note the clear reference to the Trinity in this Old Testament passage!) The Father’s being pleased with His beloved Son assures us that He is satisfied with His offering Himself on the cross for our sins. If we are in Christ, the Beloved, then we are accepted in the presence of the Holy God.
When you bear witness, always bring people back to the exalted person and work of Jesus Christ. If they bring up objections or questions, answer them briefly if you must, but steer the conversation back to Jesus Christ. If we lift Him up, He will draw men to Himself (John 12:32).
Even if you have not seen the popular movie,“Titanic” (I have not and don’t plan to), you know the basic story. The supposedly unsinkable ship hit an iceberg on her maiden voyage, sending 1,517 people to their watery graves. What you may not know is that most, if not all, could have been saved. Another ship, the Californian, had passed within sight of the Titanic and made radio contact at 11 p.m. At 11:30, the captain and wireless operator on the Californian went to bed. Ten minutes later, the Titanic hit the iceberg. Although the officer on duty on the Californian saw the distress rockets from the Titanic, he wasn’t sure what they meant and he couldn’t arouse the sleepy captain. A report testified that if the Californian had responded, many, if not all, of the lives that were lost could have been saved.
We may condemn the captain of the Californian who slept while 1,500 people perished nearby. But aren’t we often guilty of the same thing if we’re complacent while people around us perish? We need to be sensitive. I’m not suggesting that we use offensive methods. But we must not hold back from warning people about sin and judgment. We must tell them about the supremacy of Jesus Christ and how they must trust in Him alone as their Savior from the wrath to come. I pray that we all would join John the Baptist in pointing people to Christ, even if it costs us as it did cost John.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Many people these days are turning to financial counselors for advice and help with investments. An article I read on this urges the reader carefully to check out a potential advisor’s credentials before you allow him any knowledge of or access to your money. It makes sense, if your money and future security are at stake, to have some good reasons to trust the person giving you advice.
If it makes sense to check out the credentials of a financial advisor, it makes even more sense to be sure about the credentials of one to whom you entrust your eternal destiny as your Savior from God’s judgment. While all of the Gospel accounts, and even all the Bible, serve to establish the credibility of Jesus as the promised Messiah and Savior, Luke focuses on three lines of evidence prior to introducing the beginning of Jesus’ ministry: (1) The testimony of John the Baptist and of God the Father and the Holy Spirit at Jesus’ baptism (3:15-22); (2) the genealogy of Jesus (3:23-38), which we’re considering in this study; and, Jesus’ victory over Satan’s temptations (4:1-13). Luke’s purpose in putting the genealogy here is to show how …
The genealogy of Jesus shows Him to be God’s promised Savior for all people.
I wish I could simply dwell on that theme alone, but there are a number of difficult problems raised by this text that we need to consider. After looking at these problems, we will look at some conclusions we can be sure of. Then we will consider some practical lessons we can apply.
The main problems concern the many differences between Matthew’s genealogy (Matt. 1:1-17) and Luke’s. Matthew begins with Abraham and moves down to Jesus. Luke begins with Jesus and moves back through Abraham to Adam. Matthew deliberately arranges his genealogy into three groups of 14 generations each (Matt. 1:17), with a total of 41 names. (He may do this because the numeric value of the name “David” in Hebrew is 14.) Luke has 77 names, apparently arranged in 11 groups of seven, although he never calls attention to this. At the part where the two genealogies overlap, Matthew has 41 names and Luke has 57. Matthew traces the genealogy through David’s son, Solomon, whereas Luke goes through David’s son, Nathan.
Between Joseph and David, both genealogies come together only at Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, who lived just after the Babylonian captivity. None of the other names in this period are the same. Matthew lists Shealtiel’s father as Jeconiah (in accord with 1 Chron. 3:17), but Luke lists him as Neri (3:27). Matthew lists the father of Joseph (Mary’s husband) as Jacob; Luke lists him as Eli (or Heli). Matthew lists four women, but Luke does not list any women in spite of his emphasis on women in his gospel.
Of course some Bible critics throw out any attempt to reconcile these differences and simply assume that there are errors in the Bible. I dismiss such skeptics, since they deny the inspiration of Scripture and exalt man’s wisdom over God’s Word. Among those who believe in the authority of Scripture, there are two basic approaches to this material. Some argue that both Matthew and Luke are tracing Joseph’s genealogy. There are several variations of this approach. The other main approach is that Matthew traces Joseph’s genealogy while Luke traces Mary’s line.
The oldest attempt at resolving the problems comes from Julius Africanus (ca. A.D. 225), who claimed to have received his information from the descendants of James, the brother of Jesus. He stated that Matthan (listed in Matt. 1:15 as the grandfather of Joseph) married a woman named Estha, by whom he had a son, Jacob. When Matthan died, his widow married Melchi (Luke 3:24) and had a son Eli (Luke 3:23, the father of Joseph). Apparently, Africanus did not have the same manuscript of Luke we possess, which has the names Levi and Matthat between Melchi and Eli. Eli married but died without children. His half-brother, Jacob took his wife in levirate marriage, so that his physical son, Joseph, was regarded as the legal son of Eli.
Africanus admits that this theory is uncorroborated, but contends that it is worthy of belief. If this theory is true, then both genealogies represent the line of Joseph, but they diverge quickly due to the levirate marriage of Joseph’s mother. According to Africanus, Matthew provided the natural line, while Luke provided the royal line. It is possible theory, since levirate marriage was not completely unknown in the first century (Matt. 22:24-28). But it leaves us with the unresolved problem of the two missing names in Africanus’ list. (The preceding and following information is taken primarily from Darrell Bock, Luke [Baker], 1:919-923, and I. Howard Marshall, Commentary on Luke [Eerdmans], 157-161.)
A more modern variation of this view is tied to the work of Lord Hervey, modified by J. Gresham Machen (The Virgin Birth of Christ [Baker], pp. 207-209). They claim that Luke gives the physical descent of Joseph, while Matthew gives the royal, legal descent through Joseph. The simplest approach argues that Jacob (Joseph’s father in Matt. 1:15) was childless and so Eli (Joseph’s father in Luke 3:23), who was Joseph’s actual father, became the heir through levirate marriage to Jacob’s widow. Machen argues that Jacob and Eli were brothers, so that when Jacob died childless, his nephew, Joseph, became the heir. There are other plausible variations of this approach, but we cannot prove any view, including the following one, since we lack the necessary information.
The other main way of harmonizing the two genealogies was first proposed by Annius of Viterbo in 1490, that Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph, whereas Luke traces the genealogy of Mary (nicely defended by Norval Geldenhuys, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, [Eerdmans], pp. 151-152). This view argues that when Luke says that Jesus was “supposedly” the son of Joseph, he intends then to trace Jesus’ descent through Mary, whose father was Eli. It is argued that since Luke has already described the virgin birth of Jesus (1:26-38), it is natural for him to list Jesus’ physical descent through her, alerting his readers by the word “supposedly.” Of what value would the genealogy of a supposed father be? Mary is not named in 3:23 because women were not normally listed in either Roman or Jewish genealogies. Also, since Mary seems to be Luke’s source for much of his material on the early years of Jesus, and since the Jewish genealogical records were well preserved, especially among families of Davidic descent, it would be natural for Mary to supply these records to Luke.
Also, proponents of this view claim that Mary, not just Joseph, had to have been of Davidic origin. Otherwise, the early Jewish opponents of Christianity, who knew that Christians claimed that Jesus was born of Mary but not through Joseph, would have attacked Jesus’ right to the Davidic throne. But they never challenged Jesus on this matter.
A further support for this view is that it fits Luke’s purpose. Since he was writing for a largely Gentile audience, Luke wanted to trace Jesus’ physical descent (which had to be through Mary), showing that He was not only the son of David, but also son of Abraham (through whose descendants God promised to bless the nations), and son of Adam (which relates Jesus to the entire human race). Matthew, on the other hand, writing for primarily a Jewish readership, wanted to authenticate Jesus as the legal heir of the throne of David through Solomon, who was Joseph’s ancestor. Since Jesus was Joseph’s adopted son, Matthew traces the legal right to the throne through him.
The main criticism of the view that Luke traces Mary’s line is that she is not named here. Thus Luke’s readers would understand assume that he is tracing Jesus’ descent through Joseph, even though he gives the disclaimer that Joseph was not his natural father. Also, it is argued against this view that genealogies were not traced through the female line. But, as Leon Morris points out (Luke [IVP/Eerdmans], p. 100), Luke “is speaking of a virgin birth, and we have no information as to how a genealogy would be reckoned when there was no human father. The case is unique.” Since there are a number of reputable Bible scholars on both sides and we lack sufficient information, we cannot be dogmatic, but I am inclined to the view that Luke traces Mary’s line.
As mentioned, the two genealogies touch only once between Joseph and David, namely with the names of Shealtiel and his son Zerubbabel. The problem is that Matthew, in line with 1 Chronicles 3:17, lists Jeconiah as Shealtiel’s father, whereas Luke lists his father as Neri (3:27). There are several possible solutions, but I will offer one that fits with the view that Luke is tracing Mary’s line. In Jeremiah 22:30, the Lord curses the disobedient King Jeconiah (also called Coniah and Jehoiachin) by saying that none of his descendants will sit on David’s throne. On the surface, this curse would seem to contradict God’s covenant with David that one of his sons would rule forever. Since Jeconiah is in the line of David through Solomon that goes down to Joseph, if Jesus had been the natural descendant of Joseph through Solomon, He would have fallen under this curse. In fact, Jeconiah died in captivity in Babylon and none of his descendants ruled after him. But, Jesus was only the adopted son of Joseph, not his natural descendant. Thus He was not under the curse, but He was qualified to be heir to David’s throne legally through Joseph back through Solomon. But Jesus was David’s natural descendant through Mary back through Nathan.
There are some other problems I will skip for lack of time. All of the problems have plausible solutions, but the problem is, we lack sufficient information and thus every solution must be based on some unverifiable speculations. Thus we can’t know for sure which solution is correct. Maybe by now you’re wondering, “Is there anything we can know for sure from this passage?”
Even though there are differences between the genealogies of Matthew and Luke, there are reasonable solutions to the problems. It is a known fact of history that the Jews kept careful genealogical records (see Geldenhuys, p. 151). This was especially true of families who were in the Davidic line, since the Old Testament prophesied that Messiah would be born of the house of David. The fact that Matthew and Luke vary so greatly shows that neither writer was copying the other at this point. They each had distinct purposes in writing and thus used material appropriate to their purposes. Luke claimed to have carefully investigated the facts before he wrote (1:3). To assume, as liberal scholars do, that there are errors in the record is to assume that we know more than Matthew and Luke did, or that they were sloppy about their facts. That kind of arrogance is unwarranted. We can trust the record as written.
Whatever solution we adopt, we can be sure that Jesus was the Son of David, the Messiah of God’s people. Also, since as far as we know the genealogical records were completely destroyed in A.D. 70, when Titus destroyed Jerusalem, no one after Jesus could legitimately prove a claim to David’s throne. He is the only candidate for Messiah!
Both Matthew and Luke, independently of one another, make it clear that Joseph was not the physical father of Jesus, but that He was uniquely conceived in Mary through the Holy Spirit (see Matthew 1:16, 18-25; Luke 1:26-38, 3:23). The virgin birth allows for Jesus’ deity, which is clearly established in the rest of the gospels. But also both accounts show that Jesus was fully human, descended from the men listed in the genealogies. Jesus alone as God in human flesh is uniquely qualified to be both the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of those from every nation who call upon Him.
While Matthew focuses on Jesus being the Messiah and King of Israel by tracing His genealogy back through David to Abraham, Luke has a different purpose. He wants to show that Jesus is the unique Son of Man and Son of God, Savior of all people. Thus he traces Jesus’ genealogy back beyond Abraham to Adam who was directly created by God (“son of God,” 3:38). Not only does this argue for a literal Adam, it links Jesus with all humanity, showing that He is not only the Savior of the Jews, but also the Savior of any son or daughter of Adam who will turn to Him.
There is a reason why Luke waited until this point, between the baptism and temptation of Jesus, to insert this genealogy. By calling Adam the son of God, Luke does not mean for us to see Jesus as the Son of God in the same way (Luke 1:32, 35 and 4:3, 9 emphasize the uniqueness of this title for Jesus). Rather, Luke wants us to see an important contrast. The first Adam, created by God, was supposed to reflect God’s image, but he failed through yielding to Satan’s temptation, plunging the human race into sin and death. But Jesus, the second Adam, the unique Son of God, triumphed over Satan’s temptation (4:1-13). Through His sacrificial death on the cross, He alone offers salvation from the curse of sin and death brought about by the first Adam. Luke’s point is that Jesus is the only qualified Savior of the human race.
Let me offer three practical applications:
When Adam and Eve sinned, God promised that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent on the head, while the serpent would bruise him on the heel (Gen. 3:15). Depending on the date of Adam and Eve, it would be at least 4,000 years before that promise would be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was bruised on the heel by Satan in the crucifixion, but who bruised him on the head through the resurrection. About 2,000 B.C. God made a covenant with Abraham that through one of his descendants, all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:3). For two long millennia, Abraham’s descendants waited for that promise to be fulfilled, as it finally was in Jesus Christ. God made a covenant with King David that one of his descendants would rule on his throne forever (2 Sam. 7:12, 13). That descendant was the Lord Jesus Christ, born 1,000 years after David, although He yet awaits His actual reign over Israel and all the nations from David’s throne.
Even though by human measurements thousands of years seem like eternity, to God a thousand years are like yesterday or like a watch in the night (Ps. 90:4). The fact that God fulfilled all of these promises to Adam, Abraham, and David, the ancestors of Jesus, shows us that He is the sovereign over human history. We are like the grass that sprouts up in the morning and withers by evening, but God is the eternal Lord of history. We can trust that He is going to bring world history to its conclusion in precisely the manner indicated in the Bible. Though the nations rage and the rulers of the earth take counsel together against the Lord and His anointed, seeking to cast off His rule, “He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them” (Ps. 2:3, 4).
The outworking of the sovereign purpose of God is not as efficient and quick as we often would like it to be. Why did God wait for all those thousands of years before He sent the angel Gabriel to Mary and announced that she would be the mother of the Savior? Many generations lived and died before Jesus was born. Just before His birth were the silent four centuries since the last prophet had spoken. During those long centuries there were several different oppressors of God’s chosen people. Why didn’t God act sooner? We don’t know. But we do know that God had detailed the history of those four centuries to Daniel (chapter 11) and that “when the fulness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law” (Gal. 4:4).
Even when Jesus the Savior finally came, He waited until He was about 30 (Luke 3:23) to begin His ministry. (He was probably in his early 30’s.) Surely He was qualified to begin ministering sooner. But He waited until the age when David assumed the throne, the age when priests in Israel entered into their duties (Num. 4:3, 23).
We’re all so impatient, especially when we’re going through a difficult trial or when we’re asking God for an answer to an important matter that concerns us. We want Him to work now, not later. But we must learn to wait on Him and to trust Him when He doesn’t work according to our timetable. In fact, sometimes He doesn’t even work things out in our lifetime! That leads to the third application from this genealogy:
Adam, Abraham, David, and all of the other men listed here died without receiving the promises. As the author of Hebrews tells us, these men were living for the life to come, counting on His promises for heaven (Heb. 11:13-16). The apostle Paul said that if he had hoped in Christ in this life only, he was of all men most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:19). Have you pondered that statement? Can you honestly say that?
Modern American Christianity has become focused on how to have the good life here and now. We market the gospel as a great program to fix whatever problems you may be encountering: “Do you need to succeed at work, raise a harmonious family, develop your self-esteem, lose weight, manage your money properly, or achieve your maximum potential? Try Jesus!” Heaven is a nice bonus, thrown into the deal for good measure. But it’s not our focus.
But the clear message of the Bible is that life is terribly short and uncertain. Further, it is filled with difficult trials. While God will give you strength to endure the trials and at times He will graciously deliver you from them, the Bible also makes it clear that if you live faithfully for Christ in this hostile world, your troubles may increase, not decrease! The hope of the believer is not in a happy life here and now, although God may bless us temporally. The hope of the believer is in the return of Jesus Christ, or, if we should die before then, in the hope that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord through all eternity. That hope of heaven through faith in Jesus Christ will sustain us in our present trials. We can know that our lives, however short and trouble-filled, can have a purpose beyond the grave because we can share in the great cause of Jesus Christ, the unique Son of God and Savior of the world.
Canon Dyson Hague wrote (cited without reference in “Messiah in Both Testaments,” by Fred John Meldau, p. 3),
Centuries before Christ was born His birth and career, His sufferings and glory, were all described in outline and detail in the Old Testament. Christ is the only Person ever born into this world whose ancestry, birth-time, forerunner, birth-place, birth-manner, infancy, manhood, teaching, character, career, preaching, reception, rejection, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension were all prewritten in the most marvelous manner centuries before He was born.
Who could draw a picture of a man not yet born? Surely God, and God alone. Nobody knew 500 years ago that Shakespeare was going to be born; or 250 years ago that Napoleon was to be born. Yet here in the Bible [in the OT prophets] we have the most striking and unmistakable likeness of a Man portrayed, not by one, but by twenty or twenty-five artists, none of whom had ever seen the Man they were painting.
Luke’s genealogy is only one proof of many that Jesus Christ is God’s promised Savior. The question I want to leave you with is, “Can you say for certain that this Jesus revealed in Luke, born in fulfillment of God’s promises to Adam, to Abraham, and to David, is your Savior? If so, are you trusting in Him, obeying Him, and looking for His soon coming? Jesus, Son of Mary and Joseph, Son of God, is our only hope for this life and for the life to come!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
To live in this world means that you will encounter temptation. Some, like playwright Oscar Wilde, don’t even try to fight it. He said, “I can resist anything except temptation.” Others want to be delivered from temptation, but they would like it to keep in touch from time to time. But if we want to be godly people, we must learn to resist the temptations that come at us from the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Jesus Christ is our great example and teacher when it comes to resisting temptation. He was “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). If we want to be like Jesus, we will be eager to learn from Him how He resisted the devil. This account of Jesus’ temptation must have come down to the disciples and to us from Jesus Himself, since it was a private encounter. Luke uses the incident both to confirm Jesus as the righteous Son of God at the outset of His public ministry and to teach us how to follow Him in obedience to the Father.
Before we examine the account itself, there are two problems we need to deal with. First, if you have a King James or New King James Bible, your text adds some phrases that are omitted by the NIV and NASB. In verse 4, Jesus’ quote from Deuteronomy 8:3 adds, “but by every word of God” (in accord with Matt. 4:4 & Deut. 8:3). In verse 5, your text adds “on a high mountain” (in accord with Matt. 4:8). In verse 8 your text adds, “Get behind Me, Satan!” (see Matt. 4:10, “Be gone, Satan!” [the Majority text of Matt. 4:10 reads, “Get behind Me, Satan]; and Matt. 16:23).
The question with each variant reading is, How did the original text of Luke read? Bible scholars use two criteria to determine which text is probably original. The first, called external evidence, is to weigh the manuscript evidence for the various readings. Generally, the oldest manuscripts are the most reliable, especially if the same reading occurs in different manuscript families. The second criterion, called internal evidence, is to try to determine how the variant may have crept into the text. In other words, is it more likely in these cases that a scribe would have dropped the phrase as he copied the manuscript, or would he have added the phrase for some reason? If the external and internal evidence both line up, you have a fairly strong case that a reading is the original.
In each of the variants mentioned, both the external and internal evidence support the shorter readings. The earlier manuscripts do not contain the added phrases. And, it is easier to explain how a later scribe would have added the phrases to make Luke conform to Matthew than it is to explain how the scribe would have accidentally dropped these phrases from Luke.
The second problem we need to address is that Luke reverses the order of the second and third temptations as recorded by Matthew. Critics accuse the accounts of being in error. But, the accounts are only in error if they both make claim of being chronological accounts, which neither does. Our Western mindset seems to demand that everything be given in chronological order. But the gospel writers did not think that way, and there is no inherent reason that their way of thinking was wrong. To make a theological point or for the sake of literary structure, they sometimes rearrange material out of chronological order to fit their purpose.
In this case, there is debate about which account gives the true chronology. Probably Matthew gives the order as it happened, whereas Luke rearranges things in line with his purpose. As Darrell Bock explains, “Luke presents this temptation last, because it places the climax in the city where ultimately the drama surrounding Jesus’ life will be resolved. Luke makes much of Jerusalem (Luke 9:53; 17:11; 18:31; 19:11)” (Luke [Baker], 1:379).
With those technical problems out of the way, let’s turn to the spiritual lessons that come out of Luke’s account, namely, that …
Jesus’ victory over Satan shows Him to be the righteous Son of God and shows us how to overcome temptation.
Three lessons:
It is clear that Jesus believed in and the Bible teaches the reality of a personal evil spirit called Satan (“adversary”) or the devil (“slanderer” or “accuser”). Evil is not just an impersonal force. The devil and the demons are angelic beings who rebelled against God and now are behind the evil in this world. While the devil is a powerful and intelligent being, he is not omnipotent, omniscient, nor omnipresent. While his final doom is secure, for the present he is a powerful and cunning adversary of the saints. We must not be ignorant of his schemes (2 Cor. 2:11). Here we learn …
After His baptism, Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. Some say that Jesus went there deliberately to engage Satan in this conflict, but I believe that He went there to commune with the Father so that He would be clear regarding His calling as He began His ministry. For 40 days Jesus fasted as He drew near to the Father. This reminds us of Moses who spent 40 days without food or water on Mount Sinai with the Lord before he received the Law (Exod. 24:18; 34:28). Elijah went 40 days on the strength of the food given to him by the angel to Horeb, the mountain of God (1 Kings 19:8). Both of these fasts and Jesus’ fast were miraculous events, because no man can go 40 days without food or water, especially if he is physically active, as Elijah was.
The Greek grammar of verse 2 would indicate that Jesus was tempted over the duration of the 40 days, but the three temptations described may have occurred at the culmination of the period when His hunger became intense. It was precisely when Jesus became hungry that the devil appeared with his temptation to turn the stone to bread. By the way, Matthew has stones (plural), while Luke has stone, but there need not be any contradiction. The devil easily could have said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread. In fact, there is a stone right at your feet. Why not command that stone to become a loaf of bread?” We do not know nor can we speculate on whether the devil took on human form, whether he spoke audibly or whether he suggested the thought to Jesus without an audible voice.
The point is, Satan hit Jesus with this temptation at the precise moment that Jesus was hungry. He always works like that—he hits you when you’re down. He bides his time until you are vulnerable, and then he moves in with his subtle suggestion of evil.
I once heard a godly man tell of how he had been ministering in India for a month. On his return flight over the Atlantic, an attractive stewardess was especially kind to him, giving him a lot of attention. Being weary from traveling, he appreciated it. He had to spend the night in Washington, D.C. before catching his final flight home the next morning. As he went to get off the plane, he thanked the stewardess for her service. She responded by inviting him to come to her apartment for the night rather than going to his hotel. He was tired, he had been away from his wife for a month, and here was a very attractive young woman offering herself to him in a situation where no one would know. This was the opportune moment for Satan to hit! By God’s grace, the man declined the offer, but he said that there was a brief moment in which it sounded very inviting. So be alert as to when you are vulnerable. That’s when the enemy will hit!
In Luke’s second temptation, Satan somehow shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Perhaps this was a graphic verbal description or a vision. We know that it was not a literal view from a high point, because no point is high enough to see all the world’s kingdoms. Satan proceeds to offer all this domain and its glory to Jesus, claiming that “it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.” All he asks is that Jesus bow in worship before him.
Satan’s offer, like all his offers, was a mixed bag of truth and error. Jesus later calls Satan “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). Paul calls him “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4). But the Bible is also clear, and Satan cleverly alludes to it even here, that God alone sets up kings and grants authority to whomever He wills (Dan. 4:17, 25). Satan’s authority is at best delegated and temporary. The Bible is clear, as Jesus answers, that God alone is to be worshiped and served. But Satan mixes up the truth of his powerful authority with the error of worshiping him.
This is why you always have to be on guard against false teachers. Invariably they present something that is true, but they mix it up with that which is false and unbiblical. One current popular example is a man who does a great job of setting forth who we are in Christ, how we are saints. But then he states that we are not to see ourselves as sinners, but only as saints who occasionally sin. That’s dangerous error, mixed up with truth! Satan baits his hook with truth so that we swallow the whole thing.
Like a clever salesman, Satan sets out his wares without mentioning the price tag. He always shows the pleasures of sin (which are real), but he doesn’t mention the stiff consequences that inevitably follow. “Worship me and I’ll give you dominion over all the kingdoms of the earth.” Sounds good! But he fails to mention that Jesus will then be the servant of Satan, not of the Father, that the holy union between Father and Son will be forever broken and that Jesus’ mission as Savior will be ruined.
Satan still works that way: “Give in and enjoy the pleasures of sex like all your friends are doing! Why deprive yourself? Life is short, this may be your only opportunity.” He doesn’t mention the risk of venereal disease (including AIDS), or pregnancy, or the spiritual and emotional consequences of giving yourself to someone outside of God’s design of lifelong marriage. He dangles before you the good feelings of taking drugs or getting drunk, but he hides the ruined lives of the drug addict or drunkard on the streets. And, of course, he never sets before you the eternal wrath of God!
Hunger is a legitimate need, but for Jesus to use His power independently of the Father to meet His need would have been wrong. Being Lord of all the kingdoms of this earth was a legitimate goal for Jesus as the Son of God, but bowing before Satan to achieve that goal was wrong. Throwing Himself off the pinnacle of the temple and trusting God to spare Him from injury sounds like a great display of faith, which is a good thing. But actually it would have been presumption, which is sin.
Satan’s goal in all three temptations was to get Jesus to act independently of the Father rather than to submit to the will of God, which included the cross. It would have been a tempting shortcut to gain the glory of ruling all the kingdoms of this world without the agony of the cross. But the Bible is clear that anything we do apart from faith and obedience is sin (Rom. 14:23). This means that we have to be careful not only to pursue godly goals, but also to use biblical means of attaining those goals.
For example, church growth is a good goal, but if the church adopts worldly marketing and sales techniques or waters down the message to bring people into the church, we’ve fallen into the devil’s trap. We need to be careful to follow biblical methods as well as goals. We should learn from our Lord Jesus how to be wise to Satan’s schemes.
At Jesus’ baptism, the Father proclaimed, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” Our text shows why Jesus was well-pleasing to the Father. He always lived to do the Father’s will (John 5:19, 30). We also see Jesus living in total dependence on the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1), who had descended on Him at His baptism. Jesus thus lived as the perfect man in perfect obedience to the Father as He depended totally upon the Holy Spirit.
Luke organizes his genealogy of Jesus backward, so that it ends with “Adam, the son of God” (3:38). Then, just three verses later we encounter Satan telling Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” In the Greek, there is no doubt in Satan’s challenge. He acknowledges Jesus to be the Son of God. Luke obviously wants us to see a contrast between Adam, who as man was supposed to reflect the image of God, but failed; and, Jesus, the true Son of God who was victorious over Satan’s temptations. Where the first Adam was defeated by Satan, the second Adam triumphed. Also, there is a contrast between the settings of the two incidents. Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit in a garden where they had plenty. Jesus resisted turning the stone into bread in a barren wilderness where He was very hungry.
There is also a parallel and contrast between Israel in the wilderness for 40 years and Jesus, the Messiah of Israel in the wilderness for 40 days. God provided Israel all the manna they needed, and yet they grumbled and tested God by asking for meat. Jesus had no food in the wilderness, but He was satisfied with the food of doing the Father’s will. As Walter Liefeld observes (Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Zondervan], 8:863), Jesus was physically empty but full of the Spirit. How often our experience is the reverse! Luke wants us to see the sufficiency and superiority of Jesus the Son of God. He triumphed where sinful man has failed.
At this point we need briefly to address the question, Could Jesus have sinned? In fact, how could the Son of God even be tempted? God cannot be tempted by evil, so in what sense was Jesus tempted? Here we plunge into a deep mystery where ultimately we must back off without total resolution. The mystery centers on how one person can be both fully God and fully man at the same time.
It is helpful to distinguish between temptation and testing. Since the fall, we can be tempted to evil by our own sinful desires from within or by Satan from without. Jesus did not have a sinful nature, and so He was never incited to sin in the same way that we are. God never tempts anyone to evil (James 1:13). But, every temptation is also a test, where God tries us to reveal what is in our hearts (Deut. 8:2; 2 Chron. 32:31). Also, we can sinfully put God to the test, demanding that He prove Himself (Luke 4:12, Deut. 6:16). Here Satan was tempting Jesus from without, but the temptation was also a test that proved that Jesus was the obedient Son of God who would not put God to the test.
But, still, we have not answered the question, “Could Jesus have sinned?” Some say that the temptation was not genuine unless He could have succumbed. No less a theologian than Charles Hodge believed that Jesus could have sinned, but did not (Systematic Theology [Eerdmans], 2:457). But most conservative theologians hold that while the temptation was real with regard to Jesus’ human nature, since the total person of Christ contains both a human and a divine nature, the person of Christ could not have sinned. I agree with this view. No matter which view you hold, Jesus’ victory over Satan proves that He is qualified to be your Savior. As Hebrews 2:18 states, “Since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”
Thus we must be wise to the schemes of Satan; we must bow before the superiority of the Son of God.
Jesus shows us five strategies for overcoming temptation:
Not only during these 40 days, but also at other times, Jesus would get away from the crowds and even from the disciples to spend time alone with the Father (5:16). If Jesus needed such times, how much more do we.
But be forewarned: Time alone with God can be a special time of drawing near to Him, but it can also be a time of intense temptation. Jesus was alone and fasting when He was tempted. Time alone with God does not prevent temptation, but it will strengthen us to overcome it. If you are consistently in God’s Word and in prayer, you will be forewarned and forearmed for standing against the schemes of the devil.
Jesus was tempted immediately following His baptism, when the Father affirmed Him from heaven and the Holy Spirit descended on Him as a dove. Jerome said, “Baptism does not drown the devil.” If Jesus’ baptism did not prevent His being tempted, neither will ours. We must walk with God every day and be especially on guard after a time of spiritual victory.
Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, and led by the Spirit when He was tempted (4:1). The filling of the Spirit will not insulate you from temptation, but if you walk in the Spirit, you will not carry out the desires of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). It does not say that you will not have such desires, but rather that you will not fulfill them. Each day we should yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, and walk in conscious dependence on Him. Again, if Jesus depended on the Holy Spirit, how much more must we!
Each time Satan attacked, Jesus answered with Scripture, specifically with quotations from Deuteronomy. How many verses from Deuteronomy can you quote? To use Scripture as Jesus did, we must commit it to memory. We will not always have a Bible and concordance with us when we are tempted. But God will bring to our mind appropriate Scripture to ward off the enemy’s attacks.
But, again, be careful! Satan can also quote the Bible for his own purposes! The main rule of biblical interpretation is to compare Scripture with Scripture, letting the Bible interpret itself. Be careful to interpret a verse in its context, rather than just subjectively grabbing a verse and saying that it means whatever you feel it means. You cannot properly apply Scripture until you properly interpret it. This is one good reason to read the whole Bible over and over. It gives you balance, so that you don’t get carried along with every wind of doctrine that blows. I recommend that if you struggle with a particular sin, write down all the verses on it you can find and commit them to memory.
Note verse 13: Jesus’ victory over Satan was not final, and neither is ours. You can win a victory today, but the enemy will bide his time and return another day, especially when you’re most vulnerable. As long as we are in this body, we cannot claim complete and final victory over the world, the flesh, or the devil. Someone has said, “Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you many second chances.” Constant vigilance is required. By the way, the Bible commands us to flee certain sins, but to resist the devil. If we put on the full armor of God, we can stand firm in the evil day. But we can’t relax our guard until we are face to face with our Lord Jesus. He has overcome the enemy, and if we depend on Him, we can resist temptation.
A little girl was asked if Satan ever tempted her to do wrong. “Oh, yes,” she replied, “but when he knocks at the door of my heart, I just pray, ‘Lord Jesus, please go to the door for me!’” “What happens then?” she was asked. “Oh, everything turns out all right. When Satan sees Jesus, he runs away every time!” In her simple faith, that little girl realized that even the strongest Christian is no match for the devil. Only Jesus has defeated him, so we must be strong in the strength of our Lord.
F. B. Meyer wrote, “There is only one way by which the tempter can be met. He laughs at our good resolutions and ridicules the pledges with which we fortify ourselves. Satan fears only One, He who in the hour of greatest weakness defeated him and who now has been raised far above all principalities and powers to deliver frail and tempted souls. Christ conquered the prince of this world in the days of His flesh and is prepared to do as much again for each of us as we seek His aid” (in “Our Daily Bread,” 1980).
Jesus’ victory over Satan proves that He is the righteous Son of God, mighty to save all who call upon Him. If we trust in Him as Savior and walk in His strength each day, we can overcome temptation when it hits, as surely it will.
Copyright, 1998, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
I should have expected it, but one of the surprises I experienced when I entered the pastorate was that most of my opposition came from those inside the church, not from outsiders. Early in my ministry I was called on to help arbitrate a conflict in a neighboring church. The chairman of the board in that church, without even talking to the pastor, had written a letter to all the members criticizing the pastor for not feeding them from the Word, for quoting “liberals” in the pulpit (the liberal turned out to be C. S. Lewis!), and for not spending enough time doing visitation.
As I listened to the charges, I realized that the chairman was a man who had been in that church for years. He was not ignorant of biblical principles for dealing with conflict, for keeping the unity of the church, or for respecting those who labor in the ministry of the Word. And yet he had violated what Scripture clearly commands in order to push his own agenda and to try to control the pastor. And many in the church sided with him.
The first major conflict I encountered in my ministry came after about three years, when I preached an extended sermon series on the Christian family. Part way through the series, all of the older people in the church stopped coming on the same Sunday. Since we were a church of only about 100, it was quite obvious that they were gone! I learned that they were disgruntled because my series did not relate to their needs. Here were people who had been in church for years. They should have been mature in the Lord. They should have used the occasion of my preaching on the family to take under wing some of the younger families in the church, many of whom were newer believers who needed nurture. But instead, thinking only of themselves, they left the church! When I would not back down, most of them never returned.
I am not passing judgment on the eternal destiny of all those people, or of anyone else who causes conflict or opposition in the local church. God alone knows their hearts. I am simply illustrating what even the Lord Jesus experienced in His ministry, that most opposition comes from the religious crowd, not from those outside. Luke begins his treatment of Jesus’ ministry with the account of His visit to His hometown of Nazareth where at first He was superficially acclaimed, but then He was strongly rejected.
This visit to Nazareth did not begin Christ’s ministry. We can see that in Luke 4:14, 15, which gives a background summary of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, and in 4:23, where Jesus alludes to the miracles He had already done in Capernaum. But, also, from John’s Gospel we learn that Jesus ministered in Judea for about a year after His temptation. We cannot be sure if the incident here recorded by Luke is parallel to Matthew 13:54-58 and Mark 6:1-6, but if it was, Luke has moved it forward chronologically to suit his purpose. The reason Luke begins with this story is that it serves as a cameo of Luke’s Gospel: Jesus goes to His own people and reveals Himself as their promised Messiah, but they reject Him; so the gospel message goes to the Gentiles. The story shows us some reasons why religious people often reject Jesus Christ:
Religious people reject Christ because they do not want to submit to His lordship and they do not want to admit their sinful, desperate condition.
As we study this portion of God’s Word, we need to take it to heart that most of us are religious people or we would not be in church listening to this sermon! Being religious does not guarantee that we will accept Jesus Christ. If anything, it increases the danger that we will reject Him for the reasons just mentioned, as I will explain. It was the religious crowd in Nazareth that not only reacted against Jesus’ sermon, they went right from their “church” service to try to shove the speaker off a cliff! I trust that no one here would do that, but still, we must be careful to examine our own hearts, so that we do not imitate the religious people of Nazareth in their hostile rejection of Jesus.
Outside of Nazareth, the news about Jesus was spreading, and so far it was favorable: He was “praised by all” (4:15). Probably at this point, the people of Nazareth were proud of their hometown boy who was becoming famous. A few may have grumbled, “Why doesn’t He come to Nazareth and show His stuff here? Does He think He’s too good for us now?” But others said, “He’s just too busy. But He will come and we’ll see if the rumors are true.”
Sure enough, He soon came into town, and everyone turned out at the synagogue that Sabbath. The synagogue probably originated during the Babylonian captivity, after the Temple had been destroyed. It served as a local center for worship and instruction each week, even after the Temple had been rebuilt. A typical synagogue service consisted of the reciting of the Shema (Deut. 6:4-9, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one….”), prayers, a reading from the Law, another reading from the Prophets, instruction on the passages, and a benediction.
Any qualified male could read the Scripture and expound on it. So Jesus stood up to do this. There is debate about whether He deliberately chose the passage from Isaiah 61:1-2, or whether it was the assigned portion for that day, but Luke seems to hint that He picked the passage Himself. (The KJV includes in 4:18 the line, “to heal the brokenhearted,” which is in the LXX of Isaiah 61:1, but there is weak textual support for the phrase in Luke. Also, Luke adds from Isaiah 58:6 the phrase, “to set free those who are downtrodden.” We can’t say for sure, but perhaps Jesus expounded on the phrase from Isaiah 58 during His sermon, and Luke summarizes it here.) We have here (4:21) only a sentence summary of Jesus’ sermon, because Luke states that Jesus began to speak, and the people mention “the gracious words which were falling from His lips” (4:22), implying that He said much more.
But, the point is, the initial response to Jesus’ sermon at Nazareth was favorable, although superficial. They were speaking well of Him and were amazed at the smooth manner in which He communicated. As sermon critics, they were giving the “hometown kid” good marks on His delivery and style. “Not bad! I can see why we’ve been hearing good reports about the young man. He’s a polished speaker.”
But it wasn’t long until the nodding heads began to stop, and the approving smiles turned to frowns. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. “Who does He think He is, making these claims about fulfilling this Scripture? He’s implying that His message applies to us! We’re not poor! We’re not slaves! We’re not blind and downtrodden! How dare He imply that He can be our Savior, as if we even needed one! If He really is so great, then why doesn’t He do here some of the miracles we heard that He supposedly did in Capernaum? Then we might believe in Him!” They were initially impressed by Jesus’ style, but they took offense at the substance of His sermon. Their offense soon turned to rage and rejection.
Even though it came right out of their own Scriptures, they were offended when Jesus brought up the stories from Elijah and Elisha’s ministries and applied it to them. The point of both stories was the same. Israel was at a low point of idolatry and moral corruption. God told Elijah to pray that it would not rain, and so a famine came over the land. That meant that Elijah himself needed food. God could have picked any one of many widows in the land as the place to send Elijah for sustenance, but instead, God sent him to a widow in Sidon, a Gentile. Through her, God provided both for her and for the prophet. Similarly, in Elisha’s time, there were many lepers in Israel whom God could have cleansed. But instead, God chose to heal a pagan man, Naaman the Syrian, a general in the army of Israel’s enemy.
These stories offended the religious crowd in Nazareth for two reasons. First, they were offended because the stories clearly teach that God sovereignly chooses those on whom He bestows His mercy, and that no one can demand His grace, because all are undeserving sinners. If God chooses to go outside Israel and bestow His blessing on a widow in Sidon or a general in Syria, while withholding His blessing from those in Israel, He is free to do that.
Proud man will accuse the Almighty God of being unfair because He does not pour out His grace on everyone, as if everyone was deserving of it! But the Bible teaches that there is none righteous, not even one (Rom. 3:10), and that God owes nothing but judgment to all sinners. If He chooses to show His mercy to some, that is His prerogative as the Sovereign Potter, but Scripture plainly declares, “He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires” (Rom. 9:18). And if proud man cries, “That’s not fair,” Scripture’s answer is, “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” (Rom. 9:20). That doctrine is offensive to religious people who think that they are deserving of God’s blessings because of their basic goodness.
The second reason these stories offended the religious crowd was that they show that God is pleased to bestow His blessings on pagans as well as the religious. The widow in Sidon and Naaman the Syrian were both pagans, outside of the covenant blessings of God’s chosen people. There is a wrong way to apply the doctrine of election, namely, to grow conceited and think, “I’m really something because I’m one of God’s chosen people. But that person is not as good as me, because he is a pagan.” The proper application of the doctrine should fill us with humility, gratitude and fear (Rom. 11:17-22). When we realize that God shows His mercy to one kind of person only—sinners—we who know God should reach out with compassion to those who are lost.
Let’s apply this point to ourselves: It’s easy to accept Jesus on a superficial level. We hear that God loves us and that Jesus cares for all our needs, and that’s true. So, we welcome Him into our lives. But at some point early on we begin to get a bit uncomfortable as we realize that Jesus’ teaching confronts our pride and self-righteousness. Rather than building up our self-esteem, Jesus begins shining the light of His holiness into the dark, hidden closets of our soul. We begin to see that “nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (Rom. 7:18).
At this point, you have a crucial decision to make. You can dodge the hard truths of the Bible, either by throwing out the whole thing or, as many people do, by finding a church where you hear more soothing, comfortable messages. Or, God’s way is that we face the hard truth about ourselves and submit to Jesus as Lord. In a sermon on this passage, Charles Spurgeon (Spurgeon’s Expository Encyclopedia [Baker], 8:256) said,
I learn, from this incident in our Lord’s life, that it is not the preacher’s business to seek to please his congregation. If he labours for that end, he will in all probability not attain it; but if he should succeed in gaining it, what a miserable success it would be! He must lose the favour of his Master if he should once aim at securing the favour of his fellow-men. We therefore ought to preach many truths which will irritate our hearers; we ought to declare to them the doctrines which are really for their present and eternal welfare, however distasteful they may be to their carnal reason and natural inclinations. As the physician must give bitter draughts to his patients if he would cure them of their diseases, so must the preacher, who is truly sent of God, proclaim unpalatable truths to his hearers, and he must preach the more often upon those very bitter truths because men are so unwilling to receive them.
Thus, God’s way is that …
Jesus did not beat around the bush with these people. After reading Isaiah’s prophecy, Jesus plainly declared, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” That’s a staggering claim! Jesus is saying that Isaiah’s words, written over 700 years before, apply to Him. Look at what these words proclaim: Jesus claims to be speaking and acting under the influence of the Holy Spirit (4:18). By the way, in this verse you have all three members of the Trinity: the Lord (God the Father), the Spirit, and the Messiah. The word “anointed” is the Greek word for Christ, of which the Hebrew is Messiah. Jesus is claiming to be the Lord’s Christ or Messiah. He claims to be the “sent one.” He did not come of His own initiative, but He was sent by the Father to bring God’s salvation to the world. The terms “poor, captives, blind, and downtrodden” primarily have a spiritual meaning. Note that Jesus claims not only to be preaching the gospel, but also to be bringing it to pass: He is setting free those who are downtrodden.
In Isaiah, “the favorable year of the Lord” is a reference to the Jewish year of Jubilee, where debts were released and slaves were set free. It was a spiritual picture of the day or time of God’s salvation. Jesus not merely proclaims the good news as God’s anointed prophet. He is the good news, the One who would offer Himself as God’s sin-bearer, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
The word “favorable” (4:18) in Greek is the same word that is translated “welcome” (4:24). In other words, even though Jesus proclaimed the favorable news of God’s salvation, the people did not favorably accept Him as God’s anointed prophet. They were acknowledging Him as Joseph’s son, but they refused to recognize Him as God’s Son, which even Satan acknowledged (4:3, 9)!
The point is, to accept God’s good news, you must accept Jesus as He is and as He claimed to be, as Lord and Christ. If you accept Him merely as a nice Savior who helps you to be happy, but you do not submit to Him as Lord, you are not truly accepting Him. If you accept Him as a Savior for others, but do not confess your own need for a Savior from your sins, you are not truly accepting Him. Jesus came as God’s anointed Savior and Lord, and we must accept Him as He claimed to be. That leads to the second reason religious people often reject Jesus:
The folks in Jesus’ audience liked to think of themselves as basically good people. After all, they were Jews, not pagan sinners! Didn’t the fact that they were in the synagogue that day show that they were good people? Then along comes this young whippersnapper who implies that God’s message is for the poor, the captives, the blind, and the downtrodden! They had more self-respect than to see themselves like that! And then He goes even farther and implies that He is going to take God’s blessings to the Gentiles! “Of all the nerve! After all we did for Him when He was just a boy growing up here in Nazareth!”
Of course the irony is that even though they saw themselves as basically good, religious folks, they got so angry at Jesus’ convicting message that they left their worship service in a rage with the intent of killing Him! Jesus let them lead Him as far as the brow of the hill to reveal the murderous intent of their hearts. Then, whether miraculously or simply by the power of His commanding person, He walked away from them. But through this they should have seen that they were not basically good people at heart. They were good as long as no one confronted their true heart condition. But as soon as Jesus exposed them for what they really were, they rose up to destroy Him.
What is the heart condition of every person, religious or pagan, according to God’s Word? We are poor, spiritually destitute, bankrupt before God. We cannot buy our way into heaven because we have nothing to offer God. We can only receive from Him. We are captives, spiritually enslaved to sin. We are under the domain of the kingdom of darkness, unable to free ourselves from the wicked tyrant who rules this evil world and unable to extricate ourselves from the sin that holds us in its power.
Furthermore, we are blind, spiritually unable to see the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ unless He opens our eyes. Just as a blind person has no power or ability in himself to open his eyes unless God performs a miracle, so the spiritually blind sinner cannot do anything in himself to remedy his condition unless God sovereignly and powerfully opens the eyes of his heart. Finally, we are downtrodden. The word means “shattered” or “broken in pieces.” Alfred Plummer (The Gospel According to St. Luke [Charles Scribner’s Sons], p. 122) says that this strong expression “is here applied to those who are shattered in fortune and broken in spirit.”
The main thing that keeps religious people from accepting Jesus is their pride that hinders them from seeing their true condition in God’s sight. The church in Laodicea was there. Their assessment of themselves was, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” God’s assessment was, “You are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Rev. 3:17). But the good news is, when God opens your eyes to see your true condition before Him, that’s the first step toward receiving the good news. If you know that you’re destitute and someone offers you a million dollars as a free gift, that’s good news! If you know that you’re spiritually poor, and God offers freely to forgive all your sins through Jesus Christ, that’s the greatest news in the whole world!
I conclude with two applications. First, if you are familiar with Jesus you must be especially careful to apply His teaching to your own heart. The people of Nazareth were not receptive to Jesus’ teaching in part because they were overly familiar with Him. “Is this not Joseph’s son?” Familiarity can breed contempt. They had known Jesus when He worked in His father’s carpentry shop. But now they couldn’t conceive of Him as the promised Savior and Lord.
If you grew up in the church or if you’ve been in the church for years, it’s easy to grow so familiar with spiritual truth that you don’t let it affect your own heart. You begin thinking, “Repentance is something the non-Christian needs, but me? I’m a pretty good person!” “Salvation, the tender mercies of our God—ho hum!” Before you know it, you’re right there with those lukewarm Laodiceans! You lose the sense of gratitude that ought to flood your soul when you consider God’s abundant grace.
Second, if you reject Jesus today, you may not get another opportunity to receive Him. The people of Nazareth rejected Jesus, so He passed through their midst and went His way. He may have returned once more, although most scholars think that this was the last time He preached in Nazareth. Rejection of the gospel can be final and fatal! It’s interesting that when Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah, He stopped in the middle of a verse, after reading, “to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” The next phrase reads, “And the day of vengeance of our God.” Why did He stop there? Because in His first coming, Jesus came with the good news of salvation for the poor, the captives, the blind, and the downtrodden. The second time He will come as the Righteous Judge, bringing God’s vengeance on those who refused His offer of salvation.
In verse 21, Jesus says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” The phrase, “in your hearing,” points to the availability of the good news. If you’re hearing it, it is being offered to you. The word “today” points to the urgency of the good news. Today is the day of salvation. You may not have tomorrow.
Last year a man jumped from a plane and his parachute didn’t open. It took him more than a minute to fall 3,000 feet. Somehow, he survived. But what do you suppose he thought about in that long minute? Did he cry out to God? If you have not trusted Christ as Savior and Lord, you’re right where that man was. You’re free-falling toward eternity, but you won’t fare well when you hit.
Jesus offers right now to release you from the downward pull of your sin that is plunging you toward God’s judgment. If you will respond by receiving Him as Savior and Lord, then rather than going His way and leaving you, Jesus promises, “I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20).
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
While I appreciate our American form of government, the down side of it is that it fosters a lousy concept of what it means to submit to authority. Democracy and our Bill of Rights mean that we can challenge anyone, from the President on down. Nobody can tell us what to do! We have our rights! We won't submit unless we’re forced to submit!
About the closest thing we have to learning submission is the military, at least as it used to be. I’ve heard that now the military practices sensitivity toward recruits. But I'll never forget the most inappropriately named man I've ever met, Mr. Angel. He was the guy in charge of us recruits for the first week of Coast Guard boot camp. He was built like Clint Eastwood, tall, lean and mean. His reputation went before him, so that everyone feared him before he set foot in our barracks.
The first time Mr. Angel flung the door open and stomped in, cursing at the top of his voice, no one in our company said, “You don’t have a right to talk to us like that!” When Mr. Angel said, “Hit the floor, you no good bunch of (expletives deleted),” we all hit the floor instantly. Then he said, “You stupid bunch of lame-brained idiots! Don’t you know how to respond to a command? When I give a command, you had better say, ‘Sir, aye, aye, Sir!’ and then obey.” If your response was a bit delayed or not quite as enthusiastic as Mr. Angel had envisioned, you found yourself suddenly hanging by your lapels at eye level with this furious mad man who was snarling unkind profanities and informing you of his plans for doing you great bodily harm. The Coast Guard’s reason for throwing you into the arena with a guy like Mr. Angel was to teach you that when someone in authority spoke, you had better listen and obey immediately.
From the outset of his gospel, Luke wants to establish the point that Jesus Christ is in authority. He is Lord over all, and thus the proper response to Him is to submit to Him and do what He says. After showing us how Jesus was rejected in His hometown of Nazareth, Luke doesn’t want anyone to get the mistaken idea that Jesus is not Lord. So he walks us through a Sabbath day with Jesus, showing us how He preached the Word, cast out demons, and healed the sick with authority. He wants us to see that …
Because Jesus is Lord over all, we should submit to Him and serve to further His purpose.
Have you ever wondered what a typical day was like for Jesus? Our text shows us a typical Sabbath day for our Lord. He went to the synagogue, where He taught the Word. While there He healed a demon-possessed man, the first miracle recorded in Luke. Then he went over to Simon Peter’s home for dinner. Simon’s mother-in-law (Peter was married) was ill with a high fever (only Luke, the physician, notes that it was a high fever), and Jesus healed her. Instantly, she arose with enough strength to serve the Lord and the other guests. Then, after sundown, when the Sabbath was over, the whole town lined up at Peter’s door with their sick loved ones, and Jesus healed them. Early the next morning, Jesus slipped away to a quiet place (Mark, not Luke, tells us it was for prayer, even though Luke often emphasizes Jesus’ prayer life). The crowds found Him and entreated Him to return, but Jesus refused, explaining that He had a mission to preach to the other cities also.
These incidents show us clearly who Jesus is, but also we see ourselves and how we should respond to Him.
The clear theme here is Jesus’ authority, seen in three areas:
Note 4:31, 32: Jesus “was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were amazed at His teaching; for His message was with authority.” The synagogue crowd was probably used to rabbis who would cite other rabbis and speculate on what they thought the Scripture meant. But Jesus spoke plainly and clearly, saying, “This is what God means by this Scripture and this is how you should obey it.” He spoke as one sent from God who knew what God declares. He wasn’t offering helpful hints for happy living. He proclaimed the sovereign authority of God and called people to obey His authoritative Word.
Note also the emphasis on Jesus’ preaching in 4:43, 44. When the people came out to persuade Him to return to Capernaum, Jesus refused, explaining that He had to preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for He was sent for this purpose. And that is precisely what He did: “He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea” (meaning here, all of Palestine). Let’s apply this:
First, Since Jesus emphasized the preaching of the Word, so must we. In every age there has been an attempt to diminish the importance of preaching God’s Word. This is no accident, since Satan knows that the Word of God is powerful unto the conversion of sinners and the edification of the saints. One of the main factors in the Reformation was the recovery of the preaching of the Word in churches that had become accustomed to a priest droning in Latin through a bunch of rituals. John Calvin put an emphasis on explaining and applying God’s Word from the pulpit in a systematic way. He taught through the Bible, verse by verse.
In his excellent book, Calvin’s Preaching [Westminster/John Knox Press], T. H. L. Parker notes that Calvin’s “high view of preaching did not meet with universal approval either outside Geneva or within” (p. 9). There were many who complained that they did not like Calvin’s emphasis on the authority of the Word and the need to reform our lives in obedience to God. In a sermon on 2 Timothy 3:16, on the way God’s inspired Word gives reproof and correction, so as to train us in righteousness, Calvin addresses those who complained that they didn’t want his hard sermons on holiness: “What! Is this the way to teach? Ho! We want to be won by sweetness.” “You do? Then go and teach God his lessons!” “Ho! We want to be taught in another style.” “Well, then, go to the devil’s school! He will flatter you enough—and destroy you” (cited by Parker, p. 14).
As in Calvin’s day, so in ours, there are those who say that preaching is not needed, that it is not in tune with our times, that people can’t bear to hear messages filled with doctrines that make them think and that exhort them to obey. So many churches have turned to what J. Vernon McGee used to call, “sermonettes for Christianettes.” But just as the preaching of the Word brought Reformation in Calvin’s day, so it will in our day, if we are receptive to God’s authoritative Word of Truth.
Second, Since Jesus emphasized the authority of God’s Word and the need for obedience, so must we. Jesus, of course, spoke with an authority which no other preacher can imitate, because Jesus is the Son of God. But, at the same time, Jesus upheld the authority of Scripture and the need for us to submit to it. Luke reports that Jesus was sent to preach the kingdom of God (4:43). Much could be said about the kingdom, but at bare minimum, it is the place where Jesus is Lord and people are subject to Him. Leon Morris sums it up as “God’s rule in action” (Luke [IVP/Eerdmans], p. 111). The kingdom of God is both present and yet future. It is present to the extent that people live in submission to God’s authoritative Word. It is future in that the day is coming when Jesus will return and rule with a rod of iron on the throne of David. In His earthly ministry, Jesus always upheld the authority of Scripture and the need for us to obey it (see Matt. 5:17, 18).
Thus when we come to the Word, we must study it for understanding, because we cannot obey what we do not know. But our knowledge should always be with a view to obedience. As Calvin put it in the same sermon, “The Word of God is not to teach us to prattle, not to make us eloquent and subtle and I know not what. It is to reform our life, so that we desire to serve God, to give ourselves entirely to him and to conform ourselves to his good will” (Parker, p. 15).
Third, Since Jesus unswervingly devoted Himself to His mission to preach the kingdom of God, so must those whom He has called to preach. There were many good things that could have distracted Jesus from His purpose, such as going back to Capernaum and having a more extensive healing ministry. But He refused the pleas of the people and did not get sidetracked from the purpose for which God sent Him. Again, there are many great causes and activities that pastors can get involved with. I see many pastors who spend the bulk of their time organizing programs and serving on committees and many other things, most of which are worthwhile activities. But if God has called a man to preach, then he had better devote himself to the ministry of the Word, and not get bogged down with all these other obligations (Acts 6:4).
Thus, Jesus’ lordship is seen in that He taught the Word with authority. Also,
Luke shows us, first with the man in the synagogue and then with many who came to Peter’s door, that Jesus had authority over evil spirits. Did you know that outside of the Gospels, there are only four references to demon-possession in the whole Bible: two in the Old Testament (Saul, 1 Sam. 16:14 ff.; the deceiving spirits in the mouths of Ahab’s prophets, 1 Kings 22:22 ff.) and two in the Book of Acts (the Philippian servant girl, 16:16 ff.; the sons of Sceva, 19:13 ff.; see Norval Geldenhuys, Luke [Eerdmans], p. 174)? It seems that when Jesus began to minister, the powers of hell knew that they were in a battle to the death, and so Satan unleashed his forces to oppose Jesus.
Luke reports that this man in the synagogue had a spirit of an unclean demon. This probably refers to moral impurity. The demon impelled the man, above and beyond his own lusts, to immoral behavior. Who knows how long this man had sat in that synagogue week after week, listening to the droning of the rabbis, not disturbed by what he heard. Perhaps he had been able to hide his problem from public view up to this time. But when Jesus preached, the demon recognized Jesus’ power and purity, and he cried out through the man’s voice, “Ha! What do we have to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
Jesus silenced the demon and without any hocus pocus or incantations, He simply commanded it to come out of the man and it obeyed. The reason Jesus silenced this demon and the others who were proclaiming Him to be the Son of God (4:41) is that He did not need or desire the testimony of these evil witnesses, even though what they said was true. The demons believe in God, but they shudder (James 2:19) because they are under His judgment.
Demonic forces are very much at work in our world today, although sometimes they are given more credit than they deserve. The world and the flesh are usually quite capable of dragging us into sin without demonic influence. Believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit and thus cannot be possessed by demons, but believers can come under demonic attack (Eph. 6:10-20) and opposition (2 Cor. 2:11; 1 Thess. 2:18). Evil spirits are sometimes behind false doctrine, and thus we must be discerning (1 Tim. 4:1; 1 John 4:1).
If you or a family member have any involvement with the occult, such as astrology, ouija boards, fortune telling, seances, etc., either deliberately or innocently, you must repent of these evil practices and get rid of any paraphernalia related to them. While believers should not go around looking for confrontations with demons, if you come in contact with a demonic person, you can claim the name and power of the Lord Jesus Christ over that demon and command it to leave. But, remember, even Michael the archangel did not dare pronounce a railing judgment against Satan, but rather said, “The Lord rebuke you” (Jude 9). Demons are frighteningly powerful forces for evil, but greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). The power to overcome demons is not in us, but in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law and then He healed many from the town who lined up at Peter’s door that evening. While Mark 1:31 says that Jesus took Peter’s mother-in-law by the hand, Luke reports that He rebuked the fever. I think the reason Luke mentions this is to emphasize Jesus’ authority. Just as later Jesus would rebuke the raging wind and sea (Luke 8:24), showing His authority over the forces of nature, so here he rebukes the fever to show that He is the Lord over disease. Note, also, that Luke distinguishes between demon possession and disease (4:40, 41). While some illness can be due to demonic power, clearly not all illness is due to demonic power. To go around rebuking the demon of cancer or whatever disease is not in line with Scripture.
There is much confusion today because some teach that Jesus’ promise to the disciples, that they would do greater works than He did (John 14:12), means that we should routinely be seeing miracles of healing and even resurrections from the dead. If that’s what Jesus meant, then Paul was in sin when he told Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach ailments (1 Tim. 5:23). He should have told him to claim his healing by faith. Paul must have lacked faith when he told Timothy that he left Trophimus sick at Miletus (2 Tim. 4:20). Why didn’t he heal him? When the author to the Hebrews wrote to this second-generation church, they had to be reminded of the signs and wonders that the apostles had performed (Heb. 2:4). It is obvious that those miracles already had diminished in frequency. To claim that we should be experiencing the same frequency of miracles that Jesus did is to misunderstand the purpose of miracles in the Bible.
Contrary to what many think, miracles are not uniformly distributed throughout the Bible. They occur mostly in clusters around the time of Moses, again with Elijah and Elisha, a few in Daniel’s time, and at the time of Christ and the apostles. These were all crucial periods of God’s dealings with His people.
There were several reasons for Jesus’ miracles. First, they authenticate His person and teaching, proving Him to be the Messiah sent by the Father (see Luke 7:20-22). Second, the miracles show us who Jesus is. He feeds the 5,000 and claims to be the bread of life. He claims to be the light of the world and opens the eyes of a man born blind. Third, the miracles give symbolic lessons of spiritual truth. The sick and the dead represent the human race, broken under sin. Without Christ, they are helpless. But when He speaks the word, they are instantly cured. Thus the miracles show us God’s great gift of salvation. Finally, the miracles show us either implicitly or explicitly how we should respond to Jesus Christ. We must come to Him in our utter helplessness and cast ourselves totally on His mercy and power. The miracles also warn us how not to come to Jesus, since many sought after Him not so that they could follow Him as Lord, but just to use Him for their own selfish purposes. An evil and adulterous generation seeks after miracles.
Let me give some brief guidelines about seeking God’s miraculous healing today. First, check your motive. God’s glory, not your comfort, should be foremost (Phil. 1:20). Second, submit to the Lord, who knows better than you do what is best in any situation. Paul thought it would be best to get rid of the thorn in his flesh. God knew otherwise (2 Cor. 12:7-10). Third, don’t limit God by unbelief (Mark 6:5, 6). God is able to do the impossible, if it’s His will. So, pray for miraculous healing, believing that God is able, but recognize that it may not be His will. Fourth, look for the spiritual lessons God is trying to teach you in the trial. There may be a sin you need to confess (James 5:13-16). You may need to learn to trust God in a greater way (2 Cor. 1:8, 9). You may need to learn to focus more on the things above and the hope of heaven (Col. 3:1-4). You may need to rearrange your priorities (Matt. 6:33). God uses affliction to conform us to the image of His Son, and so instant, miraculous healing is often not His will.
Thus Jesus’ authoritative teaching, casting out demons, and healing the sick shows that He is Lord over all. It follows that …
I can only touch on three lessons:
These incidents show the human race under Satan’s cruel dominion, broken and wounded under the effects of the fall. We should look at the demoniac in the synagogue, at Peter’s sick mother-in-law, and at the long line of sick people lined up at Peter’s door that evening and see ourselves spiritually. The human race is under the curse of the fall, captives in Satan’s domain of darkness, headed for spiritual judgment, the second death.
I like to watch people when I’m in a public setting. It’s fun to imagine what they are like, to think about their lives. But it also can be sad, because every person you see is in the process of dying. With some it’s not so obvious yet—they’re young and healthy. But others walk with a limp, their bodies are maimed or scarred, their physical features are marred by the hard things they have endured. Like the bumper sticker says, “Life is tough—and then you die.”
I don’t know how many families there were in Capernaum, but when they heard that Jesus was at Peter’s house and that He could heal, they lined up en masse. I wonder if any home in Capernaum was not represented? That scene could be multiplied in every town and village in the world. It’s a graphic picture of the desperate, needy condition of the human race before God. In light of that great need, we all should cast ourselves on His mercy and submit to Jesus as Lord, because He is the only Savior.
Jesus could have quieted the crowd and then prayed, “In the name of the Father, you all are healed.” Instantly, everyone in the crowd would have been healed. They could have gone home, and Jesus would have had an easier night. But instead, He laid His hands on each one (4:40), showing His compassion and care for the individual. The Bible is clear that we must come to Jesus on an individual basis, and that when we do, He will deal with us personally and compassionately, like a shepherd with his sheep. Jesus does not beat His wounded sheep. He tenderly binds up their wounds and pours healing oil on their sores. You are invited to cast all your cares on Him, because He cares for you (1 Pet. 5:7).
The people of Capernaum used Jesus to get healed, but they did not submit to Him and serve Him. In fact, they wanted to hinder Him from His purpose by keeping Him to themselves. Later, Jesus condemned the people of Capernaum, because in spite of the many miracles they had seen, they did not repent (Matt. 11:20-24). But Peter’s mother-in-law pictures the proper response for those who have experienced the Savior’s healing touch: she arose and began to serve Him (4:39). The danger is that we will use Jesus for whatever need we have and then, after He does what we want, we set Him aside and go on with our personal agendas.
If we see our true condition before God, we’re all like those people in Capernaum—wounded, sick, and needy. We need to do as they did and come to Jesus. When you do that, He deals with you personally, touching your ugly sores and imparting His cleansing and healing to your soul. Then you have a choice: Like the people of Capernaum, you can walk away and never truly believe in and follow the Lord Jesus. Or, like Peter’s mother-in-law, you can rise up and immediately begin serving Him out of gratitude. That is the only reasonable and proper response if you’ve felt the Sovereign Lord’s healing touch in your heart.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Years ago the British agnostic Thomas Huxley had to leave early one morning to go from one speaking assignment to another, so he got into a horse-drawn taxi to go from his hotel to the train station. He assumed that the hotel doorman had told the driver of the carriage that they were to go to the train station. So when he got in, he simply said to the driver, “Drive fast.”
Off they went. After a short while, Huxley, who was somewhat familiar with the area, realized that they were actually going in the opposite direction from the train station. He yelled to the driver, “Do you know where you’re going?” Without looking back, the driver replied, “No, sir, but I’m driving very fast.”
Obviously, it doesn’t do much good to go fast if you’re not going in the right direction! Yet, many people, even Christians, are like that. Their lives are busy, they are going full bore, but they haven’t stopped to evaluate where they ought to be going. Before we know it, life has whizzed by, but we haven’t spent it focused on the right purpose. As Christians, we all would agree that if we want to spend our lives properly, we must be in line with God’s purpose.
In Luke 5:1-11, we see the Lord Jesus helping some fishermen get their lives aimed in the right direction. Scholars are divided over whether this incident is identical with Jesus’ call of these fishermen as recorded in Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20. We probably must leave the question somewhat undecided. But we know that John 1:35-42 records the first meeting between Jesus and Peter. The incident in our text takes place about one year later. James and John, and perhaps some others, such as Peter’s brother, Andrew (although unnamed), were present, but the focus in our text is on Jesus and Peter. These men had all met Jesus and had begun to follow Him, but they were not yet completely committed to His mission. This incident redirected their lives.
In the opening verses (1-3), Jesus is teaching God’s Word, but Peter is working at his fishing business. By verse 11, Peter has left his business to follow Jesus in catching men, not fish. Jesus’ words in verse 10 are the key for understanding and applying this story: “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” The word “catch” literally means “to capture alive.” Although in their vocation, the fish they caught would die, in their new focus, dead men would be caught and come alive for Jesus. The story shows us how Jesus transforms everyday people (even sinful people, like Peter) into His servants, involved in His great cause of catching people for God. It teaches us that …
The greatest purpose we can have in life is to follow Jesus in catching men for Him.
Picture the scene: The multitudes were pressing around Jesus, listening to the word of God. And where were Peter, James and John? They were involved with their business, cleaning their nets after a frustrating night of fishing with no catch. And so Jesus’ job was to get their eyes off of fish and onto Himself and lost people. Archbishop Trench puts it, Jesus was “designing Himself ... to take the fishermen in his net” (Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord [Baker], p. 83). The first lesson is:
There is nothing wrong with success in business, per se. God wants us to be diligent and to do well in our work. It is not more spiritual to be mediocre in our jobs and it is not inherently more worldly to become successful. Also, when I say that we must shift our focus from success in business to success in catching people for Christ, I am not implying that everyone must leave so-called “secular” employment and work full-time in the gospel. Some are called to do that, as Peter was, but certainly not all. It is not more spiritual to be in full-time ministry than it is to be a faithful servant of the Lord in some other kind of work. It is just a matter of gifts and calling.
But, having said all that, I do insist that if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you must adopt His purpose for your life, and His primary purpose for His children never involves becoming a success in our jobs. His word to all of us is, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth,” but rather, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:19, 33). Whatever you do to make a living, your main goal should be to glorify God and your main focus should be to be a witness for Jesus Christ through your behavior, your attitudes, and your words. This requires a shift in focus where you begin to view people as Jesus did and to view yourself as His representative in your sphere of influence. The people you come in contact with are your mission field.
These fishermen just had what was probably the most successful catch of their careers. The two boatloads of fish probably would have brought in a handsome profit at the local market. Like a miner who finally finds some gold, this successful catch probably whet their appetites to go back out and try for more. They easily could have thought, “Wow, if this keeps up, we could get rich!” But because Jesus clearly stated a new focus for them, we read instead, “when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him” (5:11). Things changed from this moment because of what Jesus did and said. Catching fish did not compare to following Jesus and catching men. Christ and His purpose had now captivated them.
So my question is, “Are you living for Christ’s purpose for your life?” As I said, this does not mean that you must be gifted in evangelism or that you must go into full-time ministry. Only some are called to do that. But it does mean that because you have met Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, your life is not your own. You no longer are living for selfish purposes. You live to glorify Jesus Christ and to use the gifts He has given you to help in the great cause of catching people for Him.
It means that at the end of your life, you will not measure success by whether you have accumulated a lot of money or by how high you have climbed on the corporate ladder. You will measure your life by whether you have faithfully used what God has entrusted to you to further His kingdom. Whether directly through your verbal witness or indirectly through your example, your giving, your good works, your service, or whatever, there will be people in heaven because you did not live for yourself, but for Jesus Christ and His kingdom. We have to make this fundamental shift in focus if we want to be used in catching people for Jesus Christ.
Alexander Maclaren observes, “There is nothing more remarkable in the whole narrative than the matter-of-course fashion in which our Lord takes the disposal of these men, and orders them about” (Expositions of Holy Scripture [Baker], on Luke 5:4, p. 103). First, Jesus gets into Peter’s boat and asks him to put out a little way from the land so that He can teach the crowd without them pressing against Him. Then, when He is through teaching, Jesus directly commands Peter to put out into the deep and let down the nets for a catch. Here is a carpenter telling a professional fisherman how to do his job! Peter knew that the best time to fish was at night and that he had just fished all night to no avail. But, after registering his brief protest, Peter quickly adds, “but at Your bidding I will let down the nets” (5:5). His obedience resulted in miraculous success.
Because of Jesus’ words about catching men, we are warranted in viewing this miracle as a lesson on evangelism. It contains at least five lessons we need to learn:
In verses 1-3, Jesus is preaching the word of God to the crowd, and as 4:43 makes clear, His message focused on the kingdom of God, the realm where God is sovereign and people are subject to Him. The fact that His message is called “the word of God” means that it comes from God as its source. The word Jesus preached originated with God and therefore had God’s authority. As Jesus said, “I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me” (John 8:28).
When we talk to people about the gospel, we simply have to tell them what God has revealed about Himself, about the Savior, and about our need for Him. Witnesses don’t make up their own stories. Witnesses are under oath to tell the truth about what they have seen and heard. The Bible is God’s Word to us through His faithful witnesses. Our job, like that of the apostles, is to tell what God has done through His Son Jesus.
So if you want to be more effective in evangelism, get into the Word so that you are clear about the gospel. You must understand and be able to show people what Scripture says about concepts like sin, judgment, Christ’s substitutionary death, God’s grace, and saving faith in Jesus Christ. Not every Christian is a preacher, but every Christian is a witness. To be an obedient witness, you must learn the basics of the good news.
It is clear that Jesus took the initiative in turning these fishermen into fishers of men. Peter, James, and John weren’t sitting out in their boats one day when one of them got the brainstorm, “Hey, we ought to become evangelists!” That was probably the furthest thing from their minds. But the Lord had different plans and His plans prevailed.
You may be thinking, “This message does not relate in any way to me. I am not an evangelist and I never will be.” As I said, it may be true that you aren’t gifted in evangelism and that you aren’t called to do evangelism full time. But, it is God’s will that you adopt His purpose as your purpose, and it is clear from this text that the Lord’s purpose involves taking ordinary people like these fishermen and turning them into His agents for catching other people for God. In Luke 19:10 Jesus stated His purpose, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” If we claim to be His followers, but we don’t have a heart for reaching the lost, we are not in line with His purpose.
When we do get involved in reaching the lost, we have the assurance that the Lord goes before us. We don’t have to blaze our own trail. The Lord has sovereignly chosen a people before the foundation of the earth, and we are cooperating with His eternal purpose in taking the gospel to those whom He has chosen. As Paul put it, “For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10). Since the initiative lies with the Lord, we can obey with confidence, knowing that He will use our witness for His eternal purpose.
The Lord directs Peter the fisherman as to where he ought to cast his nets! We don’t know whether this was a miracle of the Lord’s omniscience, in that He knew where the fish were at, or whether He commanded the fish to this spot and they obeyed. But clearly, Jesus was giving the orders and when Peter obeyed, he got these miraculous results. If we aren’t sure what to do to reach out to lost people, we need to pray, “Lord, show us where the fish are that You want us to catch, and we’ll cast the nets there.”
We have some friends in California who travel around the world taking the gospel into Muslim countries. But the Lord recently impressed on the wife that while she was going all over the world with the gospel, she was neglecting her own neighbors. So she made an effort to spend some time with a neighbor. As they were talking, not about anything spiritual, out of the blue the neighbor said, “My daughter and I need to go to church. Do you know of a good church we could visit?” Not only did she invite her to church, she told her the good news about Christ and the neighbor has now trusted Him as her Savior. Maybe you’re thinking, “That never happens to me!” You need to remember that …
On this occasion, Peter got almost more fish than he could handle—the nets began to break and the boats began to sink! On the Day of Pentecost, the same thing happened spiritually, as Peter preached and 3,000 trusted in Christ. On another occasion, the Lord directed Peter to the house of Cornelius, and before Peter even finished his sermon, the whole group had responded! But whatever results we see or do not see, we need to keep in mind Paul’s words, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth” (1 Cor. 3:6). While we should try to become more effective in presenting the gospel, we need to remember that true conversion comes from God alone. It’s possible to get decisions through slick methods of salesmanship, but we can only see conversions when God imparts new life through His Spirit.
So, the message of evangelism is founded on God’s Word. The initiative, the guidance, and the results in evangelism all come from the Lord. So, we don’t have to do anything, right? Wrong!
If Peter had not obeyed by putting out into the deep and letting down the nets in obedience to the Lord, this miracle would not have happened. The Lord could have made all the fish swim to shore and jump into Peter’s boat, but He didn’t do that. Peter had to obey and then the Lord did this miracle.
At first, Peter voiced his objections as to why it wouldn’t work. Thankfully, he quickly added, “But at Your bidding …” But, like Peter, it’s easy to come up with a hundred reasons why we can’t do what the Lord has told us to do. Sometimes His commands may strike us as kind of screwy, as this command must have struck Peter. But, like Peter, we need to set aside our reasons why it won’t work and obey the Lord in seeking to bring people into His gospel net. Just let down the net of the gospel in obedience, and let the Lord bring the fish into it.
Thus, to catch men for Christ, we must shift our focus from success in business to success in the gospel. And, we must learn to obey the Lord’s sovereign authority when He tells us to bear witness of His good news.
Peter had already had much contact with Jesus. He had seen Him do miracles, including the mass healings at his own door in Capernaum. But this miracle, affecting his personal trade, hit home in a way the others had not. Suddenly Peter saw Jesus in a new light and at the same moment, was overwhelmed with his own sinfulness. Invariably, the most effective witnesses are those who have an exalted view of the Lord Jesus Christ and who are painfully aware of their own unworthiness to be His witnesses.
(1). Jesus is the powerful Lord. Although this miracle did not alter any physical laws of nature, it does reveal the power of the Lord Jesus over nature. The key that shows Christ’s power is Peter’s phrase, “at Your word” (5:5). What word is that? Scripture declares that God created the heavens and earth by His word (Gen. 1:3 ff.; Heb. 11:3). It also declares that Jesus “upholds all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3). At His word and kingdoms rise and fall. And, it is the word of His gospel that is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). Salvation is not a human self-help program. It requires God imparting a new heart and new life to those who were dead in their sins. The work of evangelism does not depend on our feeble powers of persuasion, but on God’s mighty working in the hearts of sinners.
(2). Jesus is the holy Lord. When Peter saw Jesus’ mighty power, he was instantly overwhelmed with Jesus’ holiness in contrast with his own sinfulness. A more logical prayer would have been, “Don’t depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” But Peter wasn’t being logical here. He was expressing what Isaiah felt when he got a glimpse of the holiness of the Lord and cried out, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:5). People today, first God’s people, but then those who do not know Him, need a fresh vision of the absolute holiness of the Lord. Such a vision shows us our desperate need and our own inadequacy to meet that need. Thus, casting off any perceived goodness of our own, we will cast ourselves completely on God’s abundant mercy.
(3). Jesus is the gracious Lord. Note the Lord’s gracious reply to Peter: “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” Jesus’ words, “from now on” are great words of hope for us all! Maybe you’ve failed miserably. Perhaps you are overwhelmed by your own sinfulness. Fall before Jesus as Peter did and confess it to Him and you will hear His gracious words, “from now on.” He is the gracious Lord of new beginnings for those who repent. To catch men for Christ, we must grow in our understanding of who He is, the powerful, holy, and gracious Lord.
Peter’s recognition of his own sinfulness did not disqualify him from catching men for Christ; rather, it qualified him. If you think that you have it together well enough that you’re qualified to serve the Lord, you are not qualified to serve Him! The Lord calls into His service those who are constantly, painfully aware of their own sinfulness and weakness, because they are the only ones who are also constantly aware of their need to rely totally on Him. Even the apostle Paul, when speaking of the gospel ministry, lamented, “Who is adequate for these things?” Then he answered his question, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God” (2 Cor. 2:16; 3:5).
It is the transforming grace of God in Christ that qualifies us and motivates us to reach out to others with the gospel. It was Paul’s recognition of himself as the chief of sinners that drove him to preach the gospel (1 Tim. 1:15; 1 Cor. 15:9, 10). If you know the depravity of your own heart, but you also know the abundant grace of the Lord Jesus, then you will go out as a beggar who has found bread to tell other beggars where they can find the same.
One final brief observation:
Peter had to call his comrades to come and help him pull in the great catch of fish (5:7). He couldn’t do it alone. And in the work of catching men alive for Christ, we don’t work alone. It’s always a joy when I hear of someone who trusted Christ through my preaching. But, invariably, I also hear that someone else in the body has been praying for that person and witnessing to him or her. We work together to bring in the catch, but behind it all, we are not responsible for the catch. The Lord is! We work together, but the Lord gets the credit and glory.
Is the thing that captivates your life your business or the Lord’s business? Are you focused on catching fish or on catching men? I read about an elderly man who ran a variety store. It had once been a thriving business, but as he got older, the man became obsessed with keeping the store neat and clean. He spent hours arranging and rearranging the merchandise on the shelves. Some days he wouldn’t even open the store, for fear that it would be thrown into disarray. That man had lost sight of the purpose of his store!
While it sounds ridiculous, it’s easy to do. Gradually, your focus shifts from the Lord’s purpose of catching people in the gospel net to your business, whatever it may be. I pray that the Lord will use this message to show us all that the greatest purpose we can have in life is to follow Jesus in catching men alive for Him. I pray that each of us will go out into our respective mission fields armed with that purpose, and that the Lord will be pleased to give us a miraculous catch of men and women and young people for His kingdom!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Have you ever been around someone who was filthy, but who did not seem to be aware of his condition? How would you like it if that person were your doctor? Just as he is about to examine you, you notice that his hands are grimy and caked with blood. And he isn’t wearing rubber gloves! The fact is, just 150 years ago, medical doctors did not know that infection is spread by dirty hands. The finest hospitals were losing one out of six women after childbirth to what they called “childbed fever.” A doctor’s daily routine would begin in the dissecting room where he performed autopsies. From there he made his way to the hospital to examine expectant mothers without ever washing his hands!
A Hungarian doctor, Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865), was the first man in history to associate not washing with the resulting infection and death. He washed with a chlorine solution before examining expectant mothers and after eleven years of practice, his death rate was only one in fifty. But in spite of his success, he spent his life arguing in vain with his colleagues. Although he lectured widely, virtually no one believed him. Doctors and midwives had been delivering babies for centuries without washing, and no outspoken doctor was going to change them now! Semmelweis died insane at age 47 with his colleagues still laughing in his face.
That seems incredible, and yet there is a spiritual parallel. Millions of sinners are spiritually defiled, caked with years of filthy sins, but they are oblivious to their need for cleansing. Every day their minds are filled with pride, lust, greed, jealousy, anger, hatred, vengeance, ingratitude, and a host of other sins. Their lips spread damaging gossip, they distort the truth when it is to their own advantage, they tell off-color jokes, their common speech is punctuated with filthy words, and they even take the holy name of the Lord in vain. They watch with approval TV shows and movies filled with sensuality, violence, and every form of corruption. Their behavior is motivated by whatever is to their own advantage, even if it hurts others. And yet, if you ask such a person, “Why should God let you into heaven?” invariably he will answer, “Because I’m a basically good person.”
The doctors who denied the connection between their unwashed hands and the infection of their patients needed a microscope to see the bacteria that caused the infection. A sinner who does not see his need for cleansing needs the conviction of the Holy Spirit through God’s Word to open his eyes to his filthiness before the Holy God. Once he sees his great need, the sinner can then come to Jesus, who alone can deal with that need.
Our text shows us a leper who came to Jesus for cleansing. In the Bible, leprosy is a dreaded disease that is a picture of sin. This is alluded to in our text by the fact that the leper does not ask for healing, but for cleansing, which Jesus granted. The words “clean,” “cleansed,” and “cleansing” occur three times (5:12-14) to underscore the analogy. Leprosy rendered a man ceremonially defiled, so that if he was healed, he still had to go to the priest and carry out an extensive ritual of cleansing before he could be accepted back into the religious community and worship.
In the Bible “leprosy” can refer to a number of skin diseases, but in its worst form, it was what we know as Hansen’s disease (R. K. Harrison, The New Testament Dictionary of New Testament Theology, ed. by Colin Brown {Zondervan], 2:463-366). This awful disease takes two forms (according to R. H. Pousma, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, ed. by Merrill Tenney [Zondervan], 2:138-139). Both start with either a white or pink discoloration of a patch of skin. The more benign form is limited to this skin discoloration in a number of places, and even untreated cases heal in from one to three years.
William Barclay (The Daily Study Bible: Matthew [Westminster Press], 1:295) describes the hideous progression of the worse form of this disease:
It might begin with little nodules which go on to ulcerate. The ulcers develop a foul discharge; the eyebrows fall out; the eyes become staring; the vocal chords become ulcerated, and the voice becomes hoarse, and the breath wheezes. The hands and feel always ulcerate. Slowly the sufferer becomes a mass of ulcerated growths. The average course of that kind of leprosy is nine years, and it ends in mental decay, coma and ultimately death.
Leprosy might begin with the loss of all sensation in some part of the body; the nerve trunks are affected; the muscles waste away; the tendons contract until the hands are like claws. There follows ulceration of the hands and feet. Then comes the progressive loss of fingers and toes, until in the end a whole hand or a whole foot may drop off. The duration of that kind of leprosy is anything from twenty to thirty years. It is a kind of terrible progressive death in which a man dies by inches.
It was this form of leprosy, no doubt, that the Bible refers to when it describes the leper as being “like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother’s womb” (Num. 12:12). The rabbis said that the leper was under “the stroke.”
While the physical disease was horrible, the terrible social consequences in ancient Israel only added to the misery. According to Josephus, lepers were treated “as if they were, in effect, dead men” (cited by Barclay). The Mosaic Law prescribed that the person be cut off from society, including his family. He had to wear torn clothing, have his head uncovered, cover his lips and shout “Unclean! Unclean!” wherever he went to warn others to keep their distance (Lev. 13:45).
Luke the physician tells us that this man was full of leprosy (Luke 5:12). His disease was in advanced stages. But he was desperate enough to break the taboo and approach Jesus, falling on his knees before Him, begging, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” I can see the disciples recoiling with a gasp of fear at being so near to this diseased man. Imagine their further shock when instead of drawing back, Jesus stretched out His hand, touched the man and said, “I am willing; be cleansed”! And rather than Jesus becoming defiled, the man became instantly clean! This miracle shows us the cleansing power of Jesus, not only over leprosy, but also over sin. The spiritual lesson is the great news that …
Jesus cleanses every sinner who senses his need and appeals to Him.
At first you might wonder, “Why wouldn’t everyone want to come to Jesus for spiritual cleansing?” But, the problem is, sinners are blind to their defilement, and so they see no need to come to Jesus. Thus,
The first step in this process is that …
This leper knew that he was in bad shape and that if Jesus did not help him, he had no hope. He must have heard of Jesus’ many miracles of healing, so in desperation he risked possible flogging by approaching Jesus. The man’s desperate situation caused by his leprosy is a picture of the devastating nature of sin:
Just as lepers were ceremonially defiled and cut off from public worship, so sinners are defiled in the sight of the Holy God. Uncleansed sinners can never be in heaven with God who dwells in unapproachable light. Just as leprosy not only affects the outward appearance, but also the internal organs, so sin takes a toll both on the body and on the soul. Even the sinner’s good works are contaminated like filthy rags in God’s sight (Isa. 64:6).
The leper had to live separately from his family and friends. He could never feel the warm, caring touch of his wife. He could not hold his children or grandchildren on his lap or feel their arms around his neck. He could not share meals with his family or be present to enjoy a moment of laughter. Obviously, such isolation caused a breakdown of what formerly were close and caring relationships. In the same way, sin causes strain and often a complete rupture of human relationships. Husbands and wives who once felt deeply in love are bitter and alienated by sin. Fathers who once would have protected their children from any enemy are harsh and cruel toward their defiant, angry teenagers, due to sin on both sides. Because of this breakdown of relationships, …
Can you imagine the loneliness that must have engulfed this leprous man after he had to move out of his home and live apart from his loved ones? As soon as sin entered the human race, the first couple, who had enjoyed total intimacy with each other, expressed as being naked and unashamed in each other’s presence, now covered themselves with fig leaves and Adam blamed Eve for his troubles. Since sin isolates us from each other and from God, it results in loneliness. Sinners are often like two porcupines who need to huddle together because of the cold, but when they get close, they prick each other.
Just as leprosy grew progressively worse until the leper died, so with sin. If it is not cleansed by Jesus Christ, the sinner faces physical death and then what the Bible calls “the second death,” eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:14-15). It’s interesting that the same instruments of cleansing used to restore the leper—cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet—were used only in one other situation, namely, the cleansing of one who was defiled by touching a dead body (Num. 19:6, 18; Lev. 14:4-7; R. C. Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord [Baker], p. 135). As James 1:15 puts it, “when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”
This leper had no human hope for a cure. No doubt there were some quack doctors with their “snake oil cures” who would take every dime a poor leper had, but they couldn’t cure him. Probably well meaning family and friends would tell the leper of some folk remedy that supposedly had cured another leper. Perhaps he tried a change in diet. But nothing worked. All the will power in the world would not cure him. No amount of good intentions or positive thinking or promises to live differently would help. He had no hope apart from a miraculous cure through Jesus.
Even so, there is no human cure for sin. You can make resolutions and promise to change. You can go for psychotherapy and try to gain insights into your past. Some of the wisdom of the world may help you learn to get along better with others, but none of it can reconcile you to the Holy God whose law you have broken. You can deny your guilt and tell yourself that it isn’t there. But it is there, and there is no human way to remove it. This leper shows us the only hope for us as spiritual lepers:
Alfred Edersheim tells us that a leper who violated the necessary separation was threatened with 39 lashes (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Eerdmans], 1:493). But this man, full of leprosy, figured that he had nothing to lose. If they beat him he would probably die, and that couldn’t be any worse than his living death. So he boldly came near to Jesus and cried out in faith, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” We don’t know if the man meant for title “Lord” to carry its full sense of deity, since it could mean only “sir.” But in light of his faith that Jesus had the power to heal him, at the very least the man was acknowledging Jesus to be a great prophet. By the phrase, “if You are willing,” the man was not questioning the Lord’s compassion. Rather, he was submitting to His sovereignty, since clearly it is not God’s will to heal every person physically. He was not demanding healing, but was coming submissively in faith.
This leper is a great example of how sinners can and should appeal to Jesus for cleansing from their sins. We should come in faith that He is able to cleanse us. We know that He is willing to cleanse every sinner who comes to Him, because He Himself declared, “the one who comes to Me, I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). But, even so, we should not come demanding cleansing, as if we somehow had a right to it, but with the submissive spirit that says, “Lord, you could justly condemn me for my many sins, but if You are willing, you can wash me and make me whole.” What happens when a sinner thus comes to Jesus?
We see Jesus’ compassion for this miserable man both in His physical touch and His kind words: “I am willing; be cleansed.” Jesus could have healed the man by speaking the word without touching him, but, to the utter shock of those who saw it, Jesus touched this diseased man. William Barclay observes, “To the Jew, there would be no more amazing sentence in the New Testament than the simple statement: ‘Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the leper’” (ibid., p. 296). Any ordinary man would have contracted ceremonial defilement by that touch. But rather than being defiled, Jesus imparted complete, instant cleansing to this man. Someone has said that Jesus’ words, “I am willing,” backed up with this work of power, are the words of God and God only, whose almighty will is the cause of all things (cited by J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Baker], 3:140). It shows:
This leper did not get dressed up in his finest, cleanest clothes and try to hide the horrible sores and disfigurement that covered his body. He came to Jesus with all the ugliness of his disease and appealed for cleansing and Jesus responded by instantly, permanently cleansing him from every trace of the disease. Sometimes people think, “I can’t come to Jesus until I clean up some of my worst sins.” Or, they come to Jesus but try to hide or minimize the awfulness of their corruption. Don’t do that. Come to Jesus with all your foulness and oozing sores. Hold up in His sight the stumps of hands that have been eaten away by sin. The instant you do, you will feel Jesus’ healing touch as He says to you, “I am willing; be cleansed.” He grants it freely, based only on His grace, not on anything in the sinner.
The cleansing that Jesus offers is not just cosmetic. It cleanses the defiled conscience, the inner man. Just as this leper was instantly and totally healed, so the sinner who trusts in Christ is instantly and totally cleansed, reconciled completely with God. Any religion that teaches that you are saved gradually by your good works and deeds of penance is both cruel and evil. It is cruel because it holds sinners in the bondage of guilt. They never know whether they have done enough good works to tip the scales of heaven in their favor. It is evil because it denies the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood and righteousness freely granted to the believing sinner. But the Bible clearly affirms that “to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Rom. 4:5). Even though you are full of the leprosy of sin, come to Jesus and appeal to Him for cleansing and He will freely, instantly grant it.
Some legalistic folks object that if God grants complete forgiveness apart from our works, then people will live as they please. But Scripture clearly teaches that this is not so:
Jesus ordered this cleansed leper to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, for a testimony to them” (5:14). Luke only reports the result, that the news about Jesus spread even farther (5:15); but Mark 1:45 tells us that the reason the news spread even farther was that the cleansed man disobeyed Jesus and proclaimed his healing freely. Probably the intent of Jesus’ command was not for the man to be forever silent about his healing, but rather that he first go and fulfill the requirement of the Law. Jesus wanted to bear testimony to the Jewish priests both that He came to fulfill the Law and that He is the Messiah who has the power to cleanse not only lepers, but also sinners (see 5:20).
This cleansed leper’s disobedience is understandable—who wouldn’t be inclined to shout it from the rooftops? But that still doesn’t excuse him; he should have obeyed Jesus (see Mark 1:43). From this we can learn that …
No doubt the man did not understand why Jesus would command him to be silent. It was kind of strange, to have a situation where a man was disobedient for witnessing! But Jesus was concerned about the witness to the priests and He knew that proclaiming this miracle would only bring larger crowds who wanted healing but who were not interested in obedience to God’s Word. But the man acted on the basis of his feelings, not in obedience to the Lord Jesus.
We live in a feeling-oriented culture. Often when I ask a young person about their conversion, the answer I get goes something like this: “I just felt the Lord in the meeting and in the music and I felt good all over, so I went forward and prayed the prayer, and I’ve never felt so good in all my life. I really feel the Spirit here in your church, too.” A few weeks later when they’re having serious problems in their Christian walk, I hear, “I haven’t felt the Lord’s presence like I did before.” It’s all feelings, but hardly any knowledge of God’s Word and no concept of obedience. Hear me on this: If you live your Christian life on the basis of feelings, you will not be obedient to the Lord. How then should we live?
Jesus based His command to this man on what Moses commanded (Leviticus 14). There was a specific, elaborate process of cleansing which the leper was to follow. If he had followed it, he would have learned a lot about God’s holiness, man’s defilement and God’s forgiveness. Even when we do not understand the reasons behind God’s commands, if we obey, we will be blessed.
The Lord Jesus is our example of complete obedience. To keep His focus in the face of mounting popularity and increased demands on His time, we read that Jesus “would often slip away to the wilderness and pray” (5:16). Jesus had to make time to do that! So do you and I. It does not happen accidentally in the face of the busy schedules and many responsibilities we all wrestle with. But if you have experienced Jesus’ miraculous cleansing from your sin, then He calls you to a life of total obedience to His Word. To be obedient, you must make time to get alone with God and His Word to commune with Him.
By nature, some people are neatness freaks while others are “messies.” A little clutter of junk here and there and a little dust may be okay in your house, if you can live with it. But a little clutter of sin in your life is not okay. None of us should be “messies” when it comes to sin. A few years ago, NASA built a nine-story “clean” room, so clean that it filters out all dirt and dust bigger than .3 microns. A human hair is between 40-100 microns. What if Christians took that much effort to clean the sin out of their lives! The Lord who has cleansed us from our sin by His grace calls us to complete obedience to His Word. “You shall be holy, for I am holy,” says the Lord (1 Pet. 1:16). Jesus cleanses every sinner who appeals to Him and then He calls us to a life of cleanliness through obedience to His commands.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
A young boy, dirty and dressed in scruffy clothes, came into a Christian bookshop in an English village. His head reached just above the counter. He asked the shopkeeper, “How much are yer Bibles, mister?” The man pulled his cheapest Bible off the shelf, one with children’s pictures, but the £1.5 in the boy’s grubby hand was not enough.
“Hang on, I’ve got more money in my sock,” the boy said. He sat down on the floor, pulled off a shoe and then a long, woolen sock. “The Bible’s not for me; it’s for me mate. I want him to know Jesus like I do.”
“You can have the Bible,” the shopkeeper said. “Shall I rub the price off?” Putting his sock and shoe back on, the boy answered, “No, leave it on. I want me mate to know how much I like him.” As he walked out the door with the Bible, he stopped, turned and said with a grin, “It’s a good book, ain’t it mister?”
By seeking to bring his friend to Jesus, that boy was being the best kind of friend in this world. I want to talk about how we can help our friends find God’s forgiveness.
To help our friends find forgiveness, we must bring them to Jesus who has authority to forgive sins.
This is the message of the colorful story of the paralytic man whose friends lowered him through the roof as Jesus spoke in a crowded house (Luke 5:17-26). It’s a humorous story. Mark tells us that it happened in Capernaum. Peter lived there and Mark, who got his information from Peter, is the most elaborate in describing the men digging through the roof. If this was Peter’s house you can imagine how he, not to mention his wife, felt to have his house jammed with people and then to see these four guys dig a hole through his roof to let their friend down in front of Jesus!
As a preacher, I find the story humorous because I can relate to the problem of dealing with distractions while you’re preaching. As Jesus was speaking, some of the people in the front row began feeling dirt raining down on their heads. As they looked up, they saw a patch of daylight through the ceiling. As they kept looking, it grew until they saw four sweaty-faced men who proceeded to lower this guy on a stretcher right in front of Jesus. How do you stick to your message when that happens! I once had an elderly lady on the second row pass out in the middle of my sermon. I didn’t know whether she had died or what! I had to pause while they carried her out of the church! We used to have the local ambulance driver in our church, and his alarm wasn’t a beeper; it was a loud horn. When that baby went off, anyone napping through my sermon thought that the last trump had sounded!
Jesus had a minute to think about His response. He startled everyone by saying to the paralytic, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” It must have startled the guys on the roof. One of them had his head down through the opening so he could hear. The other guys were asking, “What did Jesus say?” He relayed, “He said that his sins are forgiven.” “His sins are forgiven! Didn’t He heal him? You mean we went to all the trouble of digging this hole in the roof and letting him down just so he could get his sins forgiven? We want him healed!”
It startled the Jewish religious leaders in the audience. Luke tells us that they weren’t just the locals, but that they had come from “every village in Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem” (5:17). They weren’t there to get blessed by Jesus’ teaching. They were there on official business, to check out this popular young upstart and catch Him in some heresy. Jesus gave them their money’s worth! His words were deliberately calculated to create a dilemma from which these scribes couldn’t escape without admitting that Jesus was God in human flesh. He said to this paralytic, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” His words show us that …
Here is this poor man lying helplessly in front of Jesus. In that day, they didn’t have wheelchairs, ramps, or handicap parking places. He could not earn a living, except to beg. He was dependent on his friends to carry him anywhere he needed to go. He couldn’t dress himself or take care of his bodily functions. It would seem that his main need was for physical healing. But first Jesus said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” To heal the man’s body would have made his life more comfortable. But without healing his soul, he would have died and faced God’s righteous judgment. His main need was forgiveness of sins, not physical healing.
Some may look at this poor man and say, “His main need is for emotional healing. Imagine what he must feel like, being totally dependent on others for everything he does. Imagine what it must feel like to lie in the streets and beg every day. We need to help him see that he is a worthwhile human being, created in the image of God.” But Jesus did not say, “Friend, I want you to feel good about yourself.” He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
Others may have said, “What this man needs is economic and educational help. Let’s give him food stamps, government health care benefits and some job training.” But Jesus said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
Forgiveness of sins is not just a little option, thrown in with the total benefit package of the abundant life. If the Bible’s message about death and eternal judgment is correct, then forgiveness is the main need of every person! People don’t primarily need their marriages fixed. They don’t primarily need their emotional problems resolved. They don’t primarily need economic help. People need to know with assurance from God that their sins are forgiven. All other needs are secondary. As Jesus taught on another occasion, “What profit is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul?” (Matt. 16:25). There’s something much more important than having a healthy body and plenty of money: Having God forgive your sins.
Sometimes a severe problem—a health problem, an emotional problem, a family problem, a financial catastrophe—can be the best thing in the world for us. Later, this man would have looked back on his paralysis and thanked God for it, because if he had never been paralyzed, he never would have begged his friends to carry him to Jesus. He never would have heard those words, “Your sins are forgiven.” With the psalmist, he could say, “Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep Your word” (Ps. 119:67).
Jesus wasn’t necessarily implying that the man’s paralysis was the direct result of his sins. It may have been. In opposition to the rabbis of His day, Jesus taught that while all suffering is due to the fall of the human race into sin, not all suffering is due to specific sin on the part of the individual (Luke 13:1-5; John 9:1-3). But Jesus knew that the main need of every sinner is not to get our health or emotional or financial or whatever problems solved. Those problems should drive us to seek God. When we do that, it becomes clear that our main problem is our alienation from Him due to our sins. Thus forgiveness of sins is our main need.
Probably these four friends (Mark 2:3 tells us there were four) were motivated more by their friend’s physical need than they were by his spiritual need. But their actions in getting around this crowd by letting the paralytic down through the roof is a great illustration of how we should do all we can to bring our needy friends to Jesus. Note some of the qualities pictured in their actions:
*Creativity—Hey, why not the roof? The homes of that day usually had an outside stairway leading up to a flat roof. Scholars differ over whether this caused major or minor damage to the homeowner. But these men had the philosophy, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” If there was a closed door, they found an open roof. If you can’t reach somebody one way, try another way. If you can’t get into a closed country as a missionary, why not get in as a businessman or some other way?
*Urgency—Why not wait until the crowds had dispersed? There was always tomorrow. They could have told their friend, “It must not be God’s timing.” But these men knew that their friend needed help, so they didn’t let the crowd stop them. While we can’t force the gospel on people, we should communicate the urgency of eternal matters: “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).
*Sacrifice—If you want to reach people for Christ, you may have to sacrifice some material things, including a perfect house. Your carpet may get coffee or food stains on it. Your kids’ toys may get broken. I’m not suggesting that you let people run wild and destroy your home. That’s not good stewardship. But neither is it good stewardship not to have people over because you want to preserve everything. Don’t view your home as a museum. View it as a missionary outpost.
*Persistence—We need tact, and we shouldn’t pressure a person who is not open to the gospel. But if we try once to talk about spiritual things and a person is not open, do we back off and conclude that he must not be one of the elect? Or do we keep at it?
A family that had moved into a new apartment was besieged by salesmen. One busy day a dairyman came to the door. “No,” the woman said firmly, “my husband and I don’t drink milk.”
“Be glad to deliver a quart every morning for cooking.” “That’s more than I need,” the woman replied, starting to close the door.
“Well, ma’am, how about some cream? Berries comin’ in now, and ...”
“No,” the woman replied curtly, “we never use cream.”
The dairyman left and the woman congratulated herself on her sales resistance. Actually, she had already ordered from another dairy, but she hadn’t said so. But the next morning, the same dairyman was back at the door, a bowl of dewy strawberries held carefully in one hand and a half-pint bottle of cream in the other.
“Lady,” he said, as he poured the cream over the berries and handed them to her, “I got to thinkin’—you sure have missed a lot.” The woman changed dairies. (Reader’s Digest, [5/82].)
That’s the kind of positive persistence we need in sharing the berries and cream of the good news.
*A team effort—It took four men to get this one man to Jesus. That is often the case. We dare not get jealous over who gets the credit. The main thing is getting the person to Jesus. It’s great when several people work together in bringing a common friend to the Lord. It almost always takes more than one.
So we’ve seen that forgiveness of sins is the main need of every person and that it is such a pressing need that we should do all we can to bring our friends to Jesus.
Luke has been establishing Jesus’ authority: in 4:32, in His teaching; in 4:36, over demons; in 5:1-11, over the disciples and over creation; in 5:13, over the worst of diseases; and, here, His authority to forgive sins and His authority over the Jewish leaders. This is Luke’s first mention of the Jewish religious leaders and their opposition to Jesus. They needed to submit to Him as Messiah.
By leading off with the pronouncement, “Your sins are forgiven,” Jesus set up a dilemma for His critics. He knew that they would grumble by asking, quite correctly, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” But when He spoke the word and healed the man, it was obvious that God’s power was present. If Jesus were speaking blasphemy by forgiving the man’s sins, then how could they explain God’s granting Jesus the power to heal him?
Jesus used this miracle to prove His claim to have authority to forgive sins. His power in the visible realm over paralysis established His authority in the spiritual realm to forgive sins. He read His critics’ minds and then asked them, “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” (5:23). From a human standpoint, it’s easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” since there’s no way to verify it. From God’s perspective, to forgive sins is more difficult, since it involved the sacrifice of His Son. Jesus took that which is humanly more difficult—healing the man—and used it to verify His claim to forgive his sins.
To help a friend find forgiveness, we need to explain two important truths:
If you offend me, then I can properly say, “I forgive you.” But if you have offended others, it would be ridiculous for me to say, “I forgive you for offending all those other people, too.” I don’t have that right.
For Jesus to forgive all of this man’s sins must mean that they all were committed against Jesus, which is only possible if He is God. Jesus knew the reasoning of the Pharisees (“only God can forgive sins”) and He didn’t correct them, as any God-fearing Jew would have done if people were accusing him of taking on some action that belongs only to God. He didn’t clarify things by saying, “I only meant that God offers forgiveness to this man.” Rather, Jesus confirmed their reasoning by the miracle.
Jesus’ deity is further attested by the title “the Son of Man.” It was Jesus’ favorite designation of Himself (over 80 times) and comes from Daniel 7:13, where Daniel had a vision of the Messiah coming in the clouds to receive His future kingdom from the Ancient of Days. If I were to call myself a “son of man,” you would say, “So what else is new?” It’s no big deal. But for Jesus, it was a big deal to be not just “a son of man,” but “the Son of Man,” because He is the eternal God who took on human flesh through the virgin birth, the Son of Man who will fulfill Daniel’s prophecy. Clearly the title had overtones of deity (Luke 9:26; 21:27; 22:69).
The point is, if Jesus is not God, He cannot forgive our sins because our sins have offended the holiness of God before whom we all must someday stand. But if He is God, then He does have authority to say to any who come to Him in faith, “Your sins are forgiven.”
The title “Son of Man” also points to our Lord’s humanity. Jesus used it especially when referring to His own suffering and death (Luke 9:22; 9:44, 18:31-33, 22:22, 48). It points to Him as the representative Man, fully human apart from sin, who bore the penalty for our sins on the cross. As a sinless man, Jesus Christ could bear the sins of the human race; as God, His death had infinite value. Jesus, and only Jesus, has authority to forgive sins. To help our friends find forgiveness, we must help them see that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man in one unique person.
But is knowing that enough? Is there anything that a person must do to be forgiven by Jesus?
Grace means unmerited favor. You can’t do anything to earn it. This man didn’t have to get cleaned up before he came. He didn’t try to impress Jesus with how he could walk with crutches. He didn’t tell Jesus about his perfect record of synagogue attendance as a reason he qualified for forgiveness. Jesus granted forgiveness as a free gift, with no merit on the paralytic’s part.
The only condition mentioned is, “seeing their faith” (5:20). Whose faith did Jesus see—the four friends’ or the paralytic’s? Both. Alexander Maclaren explains, “As Abraham’s intercession delivered Lot, as Paul in the shipwreck was the occasion of safety to all the crew, so one man’s faith may bring blessings on another. But if the sick man too had not had faith, he would not have let himself be brought at all, and would certainly not have consented to reach Christ’s presence by so strange and, to him, dangerous a way ...” (Expositions of Holy Scripture [Baker], on Mark 2:1-12, p. 64).
Like this paralytic, lost people can do nothing in themselves to be saved. They cannot even believe apart from God, since faith is His gift. Yet they must believe! Just as here Jesus commands this paralytic to do something impossible—rise, take up his bed, and walk—even so, He commands sinners to repent and believe. Since salvation is totally of God, including the faith to believe, He gets all the glory (5:25, 26). No one was praising the faith of the five men. The healed man didn’t go away boasting, “I got healed by my own free will.” Everyone glorified God because they knew that He alone could do this mighty deed. Since the saving of a sinner requires the mighty working of God, He alone should get the glory.
While we are saved by grace through faith alone, saving faith always issues in obedience. Jesus could see the faith of both the friends and the paralytic because they had acted on it by coming to Him. When Jesus said, “Rise, take up your bed, and go home,” the man not only believed His words; he acted on them. That’s what each person must do: Personally trust Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and give you eternal life and then live in obedience to Him.
Luke draws a marked contrast between the Pharisees and the four men who brought their friend to Jesus. The Pharisees had no sense of their own spiritual need. They were there as critics for the purpose of finding fault with Jesus. They had no concern for the paralytic man. They felt no great joy when Jesus healed him. In spite of the miracle, they left that day even more critical, ready to take their charge of blasphemy back to their comrades.
But the four men came as seekers who realized that they had a friend with a major problem that only Jesus could fix. Even though they encountered obstacles that would have stopped others, they persevered by faith until they received from Jesus what they had come for. Both sets of men were present at the same event. Both saw the same miracle. Because of their pride and critical spirit, the Pharisees went away empty. But because they were needy and came in faith, the four men and their friend went away rejoicing with the friend’s sins forgiven and his body healed.
If you come to church as a proud skeptic, watching for something you don’t agree with to pounce on, you’ll find it. You’ll go away convinced that you’re right and that Jesus has nothing to offer you. But if you will come to Jesus as needy in soul as this paralytic was in soul and body, believing that Jesus truly can forgive your sins and reconcile you to the holy God, you will go home forgiven, rejoicing and glorifying God.
Although they meant it critically, the Pharisees asked the crucial question about Jesus: “Who is this man?” (5:21). The fact that He could speak the word and heal this paralytic should have answered their question: He is God in human flesh. It’s a question each of us must face. If you answer it as the Pharisees did, you will die in your sins. If you answer it as the paralytic and his friends did, you will know the joy of God’s gracious forgiveness.
An African proverb says, “There is only one crime worse than murder on the desert, and that is to know where the water is and not tell.” We who know Jesus know where the living water is. Let’s tell our friends, so that they can find forgiveness.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
“As soon as I get well, I’m going to go to the doctor.” If someone told you that, you might think that he needed to see a different sort of doctor, namely, a shrink! Doctors are not for those who are well. Doctors are for the sick.
“As soon as I can clean up my life and conquer some of my bad habits, I’m going to become a Christian.” That statement is just as crazy as the man who says he is going to the doctor as soon as he gets well. But even though it is crazy, it is one of the most widespread mistaken ideas both inside and outside the church, that Christianity is for good people.
You hear it when it is said of a notoriously ungodly person, “If he ever darkens the door of a church, the building would probably fall down.” It’s communicated nonverbally in many churches by the way everybody looks and dresses. I’m glad that we’re more casual here, but in many churches, most folks wear suits and dresses. If a person isn’t dressed up, he feels a bit out of place on Sunday morning.
Another way we communicate that Christianity is for good people is by separating ourselves from ungodly people. We avoid getting to know our neighbors, except to observe that they drink a lot of beer and spend their Sundays quite differently than we do. We’d be greatly relieved if they would move out and a decent Christian family would move in. We fill our calendars with activities with church folks. We make sure that our kids never have contact with unchurched kids. If we’re really lucky, we work with Christians so that we can go for weeks without rubbing shoulders with pagans. Maybe someday we’ll be able to move into a Christian retirement community where we’ll spend our golden years in total isolation from all those wicked people in the world.
Many non-Christians think that Christians are good people who have all their really bad problems worked out. They can’t relate because they know that they’ve got some serious problems which they wouldn’t dare mention among such a company of smiling, happy churchgoers. They mistakenly think that Christianity is for good people and they know that that excludes them.
The only problem with this prevailing notion that Christianity is for good people is that the founder of Christianity taught precisely the opposite. In so doing, Jesus came into opposition with the religious crowd in His day. In the story of the calling of Levi (= Matthew), Luke teaches us a vital lesson:
Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
This lesson is so crucial that I would venture to say that if you do not understand it, you probably are not a Christian in the true sense of the word. If you think that Jesus saves pretty good, basically moral, church-going people, you do not understand the heart of the gospel. If you think that someday when you stand before God, He will let you into heaven because you’ve tried to do your best, you’ve been regular in attending church, you’ve given money to the church, you’ve never intentionally hurt anyone, then you’re in for a rude awakening. Jesus’ words here should jolt you into re-thinking your understanding of the Christian faith.
Do you view yourself as a basically good person? Then you should be alarmed! Jesus excludes you when He says, “I did not come to call the righteous.” Jesus spoke these words to men who were religious leaders. They had devoted their lives to God and to the Jewish religion. They never missed a synagogue service. They attended all the religious festivals at the Temple in Jerusalem. They ate only kosher food. They followed the ceremonial law to a tee, avoiding anything that would defile them. They had set times each day for prayer. They tithed not only their money, but even their table spices (Matt. 23:23)! They diligently studied the Hebrew Scriptures and could cite large portions of it from memory. They were even “Calvinists”: they viewed themselves as God’s chosen people! But Jesus excluded them when He said to them, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
We need to be very clear about what Jesus meant. He did not mean that anyone is good enough to get into heaven by his own righteousness. Jesus was using irony or sarcasm, saying in effect, “If you guys think that you’re good enough to merit salvation, then you don’t see yourselves as spiritually sick. Thus you won’t see any need for the doctor.” Jesus only saves one kind of person: A sinner who knows that he is a sinner.
The Pharisees and scribes spent so much time studying the Scriptures that they should have shown them that there is no one righteous in God’s sight. Genesis 6:5 states, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” That verse did not apply only to the Gentiles. King Solomon states that “there is no man who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46). David wrote (Ps. 14:2, 3), “The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Looking on his own heart, David prayed, “Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no man living is righteous” (Ps. 143:2). The prophet Isaiah (64:6) laments, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.”
Invariably, those who view themselves as righteous do not know God as the Holy One. When the godly Isaiah had his vision of the Lord, lofty and exalted, with the cherubim crying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts,” he wailed, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:5). Job, whom God called the most blameless and upright man on earth (Job 1:8), said, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5, 6 NIV). No one who gets a glimpse of God in His absolute holiness dares to think that his own righteousness will enable him to stand before this Awesome God!
Invariably, those who view themselves as righteous are comparing themselves with other sinners, not with God. The Pharisees looked at the tax collectors, the prostitutes, and those who were not scrupulous about keeping the Jewish rituals and thought, “We’re better than these people.” But, of course, they were looking at things outwardly, not as God looks, at the heart. Jesus later confronted them with this hypocrisy when He said, “You are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matt. 23:27). If we try to impress one another, we can put on a pretty good show. But people can’t see our corrupt hearts.
But the holy God aims the laser beam of His penetrating gaze beyond the outward, down to the depths of our thoughts and motives (Heb. 4:12-13). He sees the pride that makes us think we’re somehow better than others. He knows the lustful thoughts that we’re able to conceal even while we sit in church. He sees the greed that moves us to hoard our money or spend it on our own luxury, even when we see others in need. He is aware of the anger and jealousy that we manage to conceal under a phony smile and an insincere compliment. He knows the way we love the things of this world, while our hearts are lukewarm toward the Savior who gave Himself for our sins.
John Calvin (The Institutes of the Christian Religion [Westminster Press], 3.7.4) writes with penetrating insight of the inherent sinfulness that clings to us all:
For, such is the blindness with which we all rush into self-love that each one of us seems to himself to have just cause to be proud of himself and to despise all others in comparison. If God has conferred upon us anything of which we need not repent, relying upon it we immediately lift up our minds, and are not only puffed up but almost burst with pride. The very vices that infest us we take pains to hide from others, while we flatter ourselves with the pretense that they are slight and insignificant, and even sometimes embrace them as virtues. If others manifest the same endowments we admire in ourselves, or even superior ones, we spitefully belittle and revile these gifts in order to avoid yielding place to such persons. If there are any faults in others, not content with noting them with severe and sharp reproach, we hatefully exaggerate them. Hence arises such insolence that each one of us, as if exempt from the common lot, wishes to tower above the rest, and loftily and savagely abuses every mortal man, or at least looks down upon him as inferior…. But there is no one who does not cherish within himself some opinion of his own pre-eminence.
If you do not identify with what I’ve been saying, if you think it applies to others, but not to you, then you, like the Pharisees, are one of the “righteous” whom Jesus did not come to call to salvation. But, if as I describe the Bible’s evaluation of the sinfulness of the human heart, you acknowledge, “Yes, that is the way I am, I know that I am a sinner,” then I have great news:
As Paul put it, “Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). As Jesus says it here, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.” If a man thinks that he’s in great shape, then he won’t go to the doctor, even if he’s got cancer. The Pharisees had spiritual cancer, but they thought they were pretty healthy. But the tax collectors had no illusions about themselves. They knew that they were terminal sinners. Many of them feared that they were such terrible sinners that they were hopelessly beyond God’s reach. But Jesus made it clear that it was just such people He came to seek and to save and that He was able to save.
As you probably know, tax collectors in first century Palestine were a despised lot. Most of us have heard the horror stories about the IRS lately, but even if they are heartless, most IRS agents aren’t getting rich themselves at taxpayers’ expense. But the tax collectors in Jesus’ day were getting rich personally by extorting money from their own countrymen. They were greedy, dishonest, and heartless. They had no concern for the poor, the widow, or the orphan. They loved money so much that they were willing to be despised, excommunicated from the synagogues, and classed with murderers, robbers, and prostitutes. The good life they were able to enjoy because of their crooked profession made them willing to bear the scorn of their fellow Jews. Levi was this kind of man.
When Luke tells us that Jesus saw Levi in his tax office and said, “Follow Me,” and Levi left everything behind, rose and began to follow Jesus, I think Luke is compressing the story for impact. There was probably a longer process involved. Perhaps Jesus had visited Levi’s tax office on numerous occasions, to pay the taxes for His widowed mother or to represent His impoverished neighbors. Probably Levi had heard Jesus teach the crowds who gathered nearby. No doubt he had heard reports of Jesus’ miracles and of how He had told the paralytic, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” But now Jesus deliberately observed Levi (the Greek word means “careful and deliberate vision which interprets its object,” according to G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament [Charles Scribner’s Sons], p. 203) and authoritatively commanded, “Follow Me.” And Levi walked away from his tax office, left his greedy profession and obeyed Jesus’ call.
Note that Jesus took the initiative with Levi and not the other way around. Scripture is clear that there are none who seek after God until God first seeks after them (Rom. 3:10-11). Jesus said, “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him;… No one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father” (John 6:44, 65). He said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you …” (John 15:16). Because all people are dead in their trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), they cannot decide to follow Jesus until He imparts new life to their dead hearts and calls them from spiritual death to spiritual life.
Thus the difference in Levi’s life and the reason for his radical response to give up his greedy way of life and follow Jesus was not due to Levi’s decision to change; rather it was due to Christ’s powerful, effectual call to salvation. There is a popular, but false, teaching that says that God has done all that He can do to save sinners, and the rest is up to their free will. Jesus is pleading, He wants you to repent, He is trying to woo you to Himself, but the decision is up to you. Alas, God is powerless before the almighty will of man! But if salvation is thus dependent on the will of man, the bottom line is, contrary to the plain statement of Ephesians 1:11, God does not work all things after the counsel of His will, but rather after the counsel of man’s will.
Thankfully, Scripture plainly declares that salvation is not from the will of man, but of God (John 1:13). “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth …” (James 1:18). “Salvation is from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). The good news is that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). B. B. Warfield says, “Sinful man stands in need, not of inducements or assistance to save himself, but precisely of saving; and Jesus Christ has come not to advise, or urge, or woo, or help him to save himself, but to save him” (cited by Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination [Presbyterian & Reformed], p. 164).
So whether you are an outwardly terrible sinner, as Levi was, or a self-righteous sinner, as the apostle Paul was, there is hope for you. Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. When Christ effectually calls a sinner, the Holy Spirit convinces him of his sin, He enlightens him in the knowledge of Christ, He renews his will and persuades and enables him to embrace Christ (see Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 31). The result is that the sinner freely and willingly repents and trusts in Christ alone for salvation. That powerful, effectual word of Christ is the only scriptural explanation for the conversion of a sinner like Levi into the Apostle Matthew.
But, it is obvious that Jesus Christ does not call sinners to remain as sinners. Rather,
Repentance means turning from the sinful way I was living to follow Jesus as Savior and Lord. Levi’s actions as described in verse 28 picture biblical repentance. He walked away from his greedy lifestyle and became obedient to Jesus Christ. While not everyone is required to give up their job and all their money the instant they come to Christ, everyone must see that repentance means turning to God from our idols, to serve the living and true God (1 Thess. 1:9). It is not just a change of mind with no resulting change of behavior. It is a change of the total person.
Repentance is inseparably linked with saving faith. Obviously, Levi believed that Jesus is the Messiah who has the authority to forgive sins and to command our total allegiance or he wouldn’t have left everything to follow Jesus. In the story of the paralytic just preceding Luke shows that Jesus truly had the authority to forgive sins. His point in linking that story with this one of Levi’s conversion is to show that Jesus has the authority to forgive a sinner of the worst kind by calling that sinner to repentance.
We tend to think of repentance as a negative necessity. You’ve got to do it to get out from under God’s judgment, but life won’t be as fun any more. But Jesus links repentance with great joy, both in heaven and on earth (Luke 15:7, 10, 22-27, 32). While our text does not state that Levi was joyful after he repented, it is implied in that he put on a great banquet and invited all his unsavory friends to meet Jesus. Repentance ushers us into the full banquet of God’s abundant mercies. We will be filled with gratitude to our gracious Lord who so freely bestows His salvation on such undeserving sinners. So we should view repentance as a delight because of all its benefits, not just as a duty that deprives us of the temporary pleasures of sin.
Invariably, repentance means that I will accept Jesus’ mission for my life. You cannot truly repent and believe in Jesus and then decide that you’re going to live for yourself and aren’t going to follow Him as Lord. While the Lord’s purpose as to the particulars of how we serve Him will vary, the bottom line for all of us is that He wants to use us as repentant sinners to call other sinners to repentance through us.
There are three specific implications of accepting Jesus’ mission for our lives as seen in Levi’s response:
(1) We must make contact with lost people to reach them for Christ.
That sounds perfectly obvious, but it is anything but common in practice. This is my biggest problem when it comes to reaching others for Christ: I simply do not know that many non-Christians well enough to talk about spiritual things. And my occupation serves as a barrier to the process. As soon as somebody finds out what I do for a living, they draw back as if I had bubonic plague. But we all need to develop relationships with those who need to know the Savior.
By the way, recently converted people often have the most contacts with lost people. Levi had a whole house full of friends who needed to meet Jesus. Great! Let’s help new believers do all they can to bear witness to their lost friends.
But maybe you’re wondering, “I thought Christians were to be separate from bad company. Proverbs warns about the danger of wrong friendships. Isn’t it dangerous to socialize with lost people?”
If you socialize for the purpose of carousing with people in their search for pleasure, yes, that’s wrong. But if your purpose is to relate to them as a fellow sinner with a view to introducing them to the Savior, that is proper and good.
I emphasize “fellow-sinner” for two reasons. First, if you remember that you’re a sinner, you won’t come across as holier-than-thou. Second, you will be on guard so that you won’t be tempted to join in with things that would draw you back into your old way of life. Most Christians have it backwards: they associate with sinning believers and separate from unbelievers. But Paul tells us that we are not to associate with any so-called Christian if he is sinning, but that we are to associate with unbelievers (1 Cor. 5:9-13). Purpose is crucial in our contacts with lost people.
Who would have thought that this greedy, hardhearted tax collector would become a disciple and write the first Gospel? Imagine what the other disciples must have thought when Jesus called Levi! Or what the early church thought when the Lord called Paul! But the Lord is in the business of calling those whom the world thinks to be unlikely candidates for salvation. We need to be careful never to despair of anyone’s salvation, no matter how entrenched in sin the person may be. It is to God’s glory to save the most desperately wicked.
Can you imagine a doctor's office with a sign on the door: “We do not treat the sick”? As a church, we dare not imply, “Good people only; sinners not welcome.” Jesus did not come to call good people, but to call sinners to repentance. If you think of yourself as a good person, you should be alarmed. Christ saves sinners, not pretty good people. But if you confess, “I am a sinner,” you have the promise of Scripture that “Christ died for the ungodly.” If you will repent and believe in Jesus Christ, you will know the joy of having Him dine at your table and of seeing Him use you to share His good news with other sinners.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Someone incorrectly, but nonetheless humorously, defined a Puritan as “a person who suffers from an overwhelming dread that somewhere, sometime, somehow, someone may be enjoying himself.” That definition is incorrect because the Puritans had as their purpose “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Since God is absolutely good, truly enjoying Him is the greatest joy possible.
But we all have met someone who fits that incorrect definition of a Puritan—a religious person who only seems to be content when everyone else is miserable. They put starch in their underwear and they want to make sure that everyone else lives the same way! These folks are like Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon Lutherans, who are suspicious of a place like Hawaii that doesn’t have harsh winters. Those Minnesota winters are good for you because they make you tough. These folks will have trouble adjusting to heaven if it doesn’t have harsh winters!
Two of the biggest spiritual killjoys have been ascetics and legalists. Ascetics deliberately make life tough on themselves and think that pleasure is evil or, at least, tends toward evil. They wouldn’t feel quite right to enjoy life. Legalists delight in keeping their lists of rules and judging those who don’t have or keep the same rules. Invariably, their rules are not the weighty matters of God’s Law, such as love, justice, mercy, and matters of the heart. Rather, they congratulate themselves for keeping manmade standards dealing with external things and they judge those who ignore these things. Ascetics and legalists are gospel killjoys.
In our text, Jesus encounters some who tended toward asceticism and some who were legalistic, especially with regard to Sabbath observance. These events probably did not occur chronologically next to each other, but Luke places them in this context to show the supremacy and authority of Jesus over the old system and to show the growing hostility toward Jesus from the Jewish religious leaders. They grumbled when He forgave the sins of the paralytic (5:21). They grumbled some more when Jesus and the disciples ate and drank with tax-gatherers and sinners at Levi’s house (5:30). And they were unhappy about Jesus’ disciples plucking, rubbing, and eating the heads of grain on the Sabbath. Jesus’ defense shows us how to avoid these two gospel killjoys:
To avoid the gospel killjoys of asceticism and legalism, focus on the joy of a personal relationship with Christ.
Satan wants to promote the mistaken idea that Christianity is a joyless, grit-your-teeth-and-endure-it sort of religion. If people think that, they will turn to something or someone other than God as the source of their joy. God’s purpose is for His creatures to glorify Him. A joyless Christian or someone who finds his greatest joy in something other than God, does not glorify God. We only glorify God when we find true joy in Him. Thus asceticism and legalism are both enemies of the good news Jesus came to bring.
Everyone who seeks after God recognizes the problem of controlling the flesh. Due to the sin that indwells us all, we all are drawn after many of the sinful pleasures that God forbids in the Bible. Asceticism is the attempt to conquer these sinful passions through self-denial of some form. This can include fasting (abstaining from food), celibacy (abstaining from marriage or marital relations), poverty (renouncing any accumulation of worldly goods), and other similar practices. But asceticism differs from the self-denial Jesus advocated in the realm of motive.
Outwardly, it would seem as if John the Baptist lived an ascetic lifestyle. He remained single, he lived on a meager diet, he dressed simply, and he lived a Spartan life for the sake of God’s kingdom. Although the Pharisees were generally opposed to John the Baptist’s ministry because he confronted their hypocrisy, they found common ground with John’s disciples on the practice of fasting. So they sought to use this against Jesus and His disciples, who seemed to be more into feasting than fasting.
The Law of Moses only prescribed one fast per year, on the Day of Atonement, although Jewish custom had added four yearly fasts. But the stricter Pharisees fasted every Monday and Thursday. You could tell they were fasting because they whitened their faces, put ashes on their heads, wore old clothes, and looked as sober as possible. They had the idea that you couldn’t be spiritual unless you looked and felt miserable. And, they wanted to impress everyone else with how spiritual they really were. Jesus attacked this in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 6:16-18) when He said,
And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
So fasting, if it stems from our heart as a means of devoting time to be alone with God to seek Him in prayer, can be rewarding. The motive is crucial. John the Baptist and his disciples no doubt fasted out of the proper motives, whereas the Pharisees and their disciples did not.
But in our text, Jesus doesn’t draw lines between John’s disciples and the Pharisees. Instead, He defends His disciples by asking rhetorically whether you can make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is present. The answer is, “Obviously, not. A wedding is a time of feasting, not fasting.” Thus while Jesus the Bridegroom was with them, His disciples were not called to fasting. Then Jesus (for the first time in Luke) alludes to His own impending death. In that day His followers would fast.
Jesus follows this with three short explanatory illustrations that make the point that He is ushering in a new day spiritually. No one cuts a patch from a new garment to patch up an old one. This would ruin the new garment and it would not match the old one. Nor does anyone put new wine into old wineskins. The old, brittle skin would burst, losing both the old skin and the new wine. With these two illustrations Jesus claims that He is offering something new and distinct from the old dispensation of the Law. As Messiah, He is ushering in the new day. While there is obvious continuity, in that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament promises regarding Messiah, there is also a definite transition. Judaism had become encumbered with many manmade traditions. Jesus had to cut these away in order to offer the new wine of gospel joy.
The third illustration (5:39) is probably both a warning and an explanation. The person who is used to the old wine will not desire the new, but will be content with the old. The Pharisees would resist Jesus’ ministry because they were so entrenched in their traditions. The point of this illustration is not that the old ways are better than the new, but rather that a person who is used to the old ways will be prone to resist the new. But the Pharisees would have to break with their old, ascetic and legalistic ways if they wanted to follow the new way of joy that Jesus was offering.
The key point, especially with regard to fasting, is that the person of Jesus stands apart from and in contrast to the old way of the letter of the Law. Later (Luke 9:23) Jesus clearly teaches the need for self-denial if a person wants to follow Him, and so He is not negating that here. Rather, He is emphasizing the motive of His presence and the difference of relationship over ritual (more about that in a moment).
Should Christians practice fasting? There are no direct commands to fast in the epistles, but there are examples of Paul and others fasting in times of personal crisis, in special times of seeking the Lord, or when they needed God’s guidance (Acts 9:9; 13:2, 3; 14:23). Fasting can be helpful if you need to repent of sin or if you sense that you’ve drifted from the Lord and need to draw near again. Fasting can be appropriate during a time of grief; to seek deliverance or protection; to express concern for God’s work; to minister to the needs of others; to overcome temptation; and to express love and devotion to God (see Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life [NavPress], pp. 151-172). So, fasting is not commanded, but it is commended as a means of seeking God.
It’s interesting that both self-discipline and joy are listed as the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22, 23). Again, motive is crucial. If the Lord prompts us to fast for one of the reasons just mentioned, then we should obey. But we always need to be on guard against pride and the flesh. God is not impressed with outward ritual or anything that feeds our pride (Isa. 58:1-12). If we’re not careful, fasting can turn into asceticism, which kills the joy of the gospel. If we fast, we must do it as unto the Lord, not to impress others.
Luke presents the Pharisees’ confrontation with Jesus’ disciples over their picking grain on the Sabbath to show the growing tension between the Jewish leaders and Jesus and to show that He is Lord of the Sabbath. The Law of Moses allowed for picking the grain as you walked through a neighbor’s field (Deut. 23:25). The problem, in the Pharisees’ minds, was that picking grain was reaping, rubbing the grain was threshing, blowing away the husks was winnowing, and the whole process was preparing food. All this was work according to their rules, and thus forbidden on the Sabbath. So the disciples were not breaking God’s Sabbath commandment, but rather the rabbinic refinement of that commandment. Jesus and the disciples were challenging pharisaic custom.
But surprisingly, Jesus did not point out that His critics were following the commands of men rather than the commands of God. Instead, He took an incident from the life of David (1 Sam. 21:1-7) in which he violated the letter of the law in order to meet human needs. David and his men were fleeing from Saul. They came to the Tabernacle, where David asked the priest for the consecrated bread, which was put on the table of shewbread and replaced each Sabbath. The priests could then eat the old bread (Lev. 24:9). But in this case, David and his men, who were not priests, ate the bread. Jesus’ point is that legitimate human need (hunger) superseded the letter of the ceremonial law. People take precedence over ritual, even if that ritual is ordained by God.
His critics were probably thinking and about ready to ask, “What makes you think that you can compare yourself with David?” But then Jesus makes the stunning claim that He, the Son of Man, is the Lord of the Sabbath! Since God had instituted the Sabbath at creation (Gen.2:1-3), as well as stipulated it in the Ten Commandments through Moses, Jesus was saying that He was above Moses and was in fact on the same level as God who originated the Sabbath command! As the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus had the authority to interpret the force, intent, and limits of the Sabbath law. As the next incident and many others in the Gospels show, Jesus challenged the legalistic approach of the Pharisees, which was not God’s intent in giving the Sabbath law.
Legalism always kills the joy of the good news that Jesus came to bring. It is a common problem in our day, but there is a lot of confusion about it. So we need to be careful to understand what it is and what it is not. In the first place, obedience to God’s commandments is not legalism. Jesus often emphasized the importance of obedience to God’s Word. The Bible is full of various rules, some negative, some positive, which God has commanded for our good. Keeping them is not legalism. Being under grace does not mean that we are free to disobey God or hang loose with regard to His moral commandments.
Secondly, keeping manmade rules is not necessarily legalism. There are many areas not specified in the Bible where we need some rules to function as a Christian family or church. While these human rules are not as important as the commands of Scripture, there is a proper place for them and keeping them is not tantamount to legalism. For example, if your parents set a curfew for you, they are not being legalistic and you are not free to disregard their curfew because you’re “under grace”!
So what is legalism? Essentially, it is an attitude of pride in which I congratulate myself for keeping certain standards and condemn those who do not keep them. Usually the legalist thinks that his conformity to these rules makes him acceptable to God, either for salvation or sanctification. Invariably, these standards are not the great commandments of the Bible, such as loving God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. Most often they are external things which the legalist is able to keep (see Matt. 23:23-28).
The legalist judges spirituality by external conformity to certain rules. “Do you keep the Sabbath as we have defined it? Very well.” It doesn’t matter whether your heart is full of pride or lust or greed. What matters is that you keep the Sabbath rules. Legalists ignore motives and inner righteousness. What matters to them is outward conformity. God hates that sort of thing, because it stems from the flesh (Isa. 1:11-14). God is concerned that we please Him from our hearts.
What about this matter of the Sabbath? Is Sunday the Christian Sabbath? Are we required to observe it as the Jews observed Saturday? If not, does it apply in any way to us? After all, it is one of the Ten Commandments, and all of the others apply to us! If you want a more detailed treatment, I refer you to my message, “God’s Day of Rest” (Gen. 2:1-3 [12/17/95]). But briefly, I think that in reacting against legalism concerning the Lord’s Day, we’ve thrown the baby out with the bath water. The principle of setting one day in seven apart for worship and rest is a gift that God has given to the human race for our benefit. “The Sabbath was made for man.” If we treat every day the same, except that on Sunday we attend a church service, we’re missing the blessing God intended by giving us the Sabbath commandment. We should set apart the Lord’s Day as a special day for worship and for rest from our normal duties. If we do not, we will suffer for it.
Clearly, we are not under the rigorous regulations which applied to the Jewish nation, where God demanded that a man caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath should be stoned (Num. 15:32-36). But neither are we free to shrug off the Sabbath principle completely. Some say that Christ is to be Lord of all our time, so we don’t have to set apart one day a week to Him. That’s like saying that since all our money belongs to God, we don’t have to give regularly. God knows how we’re made and that we need one day a week to worship, to rest, and to reflect on spiritual matters. There is a biblical basis for arguing that that day should be Sunday.
So even though we are not under the letter of the Jewish Law, there is an abiding principle of setting apart unto the Lord one day each week. We don’t do it to earn points with God or to check it off our list to prove that we’re spiritual. We don’t take pride in our observance of the Lord’s Day and condemn those who are not up to our level of spiritual insight. But we should set aside the Lord’s Day out of love for Him, in order to honor Him.
So, asceticism and legalism kill the joy of the gospel Jesus came to bring. But how do we get and maintain that joy?
Jesus refers to Himself here as the bridegroom. Remember, He was talking, at least in part, to some disciples of John the Baptist. So Jesus picked up on something John had said just prior to his imprisonment and used it to frame His answer. John had referred to himself as the friend of the bridegroom and to Jesus as the bridegroom. John said that his joy was made full by hearing the voice of the bridegroom (John 3:29). So here Jesus uses this analogy and points out what was obvious to anybody in that culture, that the soberness of fasting was incongruent with a wedding feast.
Jewish weddings lasted for seven days and were to be a time of joy and festivity. Even if the wedding week occurred during the most strict of Jewish fasts, the Day of Atonement, the bride could relax one of the ordinances. All mourning was to be suspended. Even the obligation of daily prayers ceased. To make the bride and groom happy was seen as a religious duty (Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Eerdmans], 1:663). So Jesus says, “You cannot make [them] fast while the bridegroom is with them.”
As we’ve seen, there are times when fasting is appropriate. There are times when the most spiritually mature Christians will be sad, when they will grieve, when they won’t be marked by joy. But Jesus is the bridegroom and when He is with His people, they normally will not be marked by the gloom of fasting, but rather by the joy of the wedding feast. The joy of the Christian life is being personally related to our loving Bridegroom!
The picture of Christ as our Bridegroom is a beautiful one. I’ve never yet performed a wedding where the bride was standing there thinking, “I dread getting married to the creep standing next to me.” It’s written all over her face that she thinks this guy hung the moon. Of course, she will find out otherwise very shortly! But she loves her groom and she can’t suppress her joy. If you’ve lost the joy of your Christian walk, you’ve got to get back to your first love for your Bridegroom, who gave Himself on the cross for you.
You can’t patch Jesus unto a joyless system of asceticism or legalism. You can’t pour the new wine He brings into the old wineskins of keeping manmade rules as the basis of your relationship with God. Darrell Bock comments on verse 35: “What is key about the change of perspective is that it all turns on Jesus’ presence. He is the issue that defines the practice…. The groom is what really matters, and the audience needs to see that he—Jesus—is the key point” (Luke [Baker], 1:518). The joy of the gospel is based on a personal relationship with our loving Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Marla and I will celebrate our 25th anniversary next year. Suppose you saw me looking kind of glum and asked me what the matter was. I said, “I’ve got to spend some time with my wife. When we got married, she made me agree to spend at least ten hours a week with her, and I’ve only spent five so far this week. So I guess I’d better do it. I know it’s for my own good, even though I don’t like it.” I think you’d have good cause to wonder if my marriage was very healthy. I’ve just described a relationship based on asceticism and legalism. There’s no joy in that.
In a marriage based on love will there be self-denial? You bet! Will I obey my marriage vows, even when it’s tough and I don’t feel like it? Yes, every time! But it won’t be a grit your teeth and take your medicine kind of denial and obedience. Rather, it’s marked by joy because of the love relationship I enjoy with my wife. While there is the normal ebb and flow of emotions in our marriage, there is a deep undercurrent of joy when I am with her.
It ought to be the same in your relationship with the Lord Jesus. If you know the joy of a personal relationship with Him, there will be times when you fast. You will discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. You will obey His Word. But your motive will not be to earn right standing with Him or to impress others with your spirituality. Your motive will be the joy of knowing and pleasing your Bridegroom. Don’t let the gospel killjoys of asceticism and legalism rob you of the joy of an ongoing relationship with your loving Bridegroom. He is the source of our joy!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
When Marla and I lived in Dallas during my seminary days, we would sometimes go out to hear some of the local music groups. One group had a song that would always bring the crowd to life. As I recall, the words went, “You done stomped on my heart and squashed that sucker flat. You just kinda sorta, stomped on my aorta.” I suppose the crowd liked it because so many have been hurt by a romance gone bad that they identified with the words. I liked the song because I thought it was creative to find a word that rhymed with aorta!
There are probably many of us here who have had someone we love stomp on our hearts. But I can say that it’s true of every person here that if you’ve spent any time around Jesus, He has stomped on your heart. Or, to use another expression, Jesus has stepped on your toes. He doesn’t do it accidentally, followed by a polite, “Excuse me, I’m so sorry.” He deliberately aims for your toes, lifts His foot, and comes down hard. He always goes for the jugular: He just kinda sorta stomps on your aorta!
Of course Jesus does not do this because He has a mean streak. He does not enjoy inflicting pain on us. He does it out of love to confront us at our major point of weakness or sin, so that we will face up to it and come to Him for the healing we need. He has to take deliberate aim and stomp hard because we all are so entrenched in our sins that we’re comfortable in them. We excuse them as faults, we shrug them off as trivial, we dodge them as not of any consequence, until—STOMP—Ow! Jesus gets our attention. We can no longer ignore or hide our problem. At this point, we are faced with a crucial choice: How will we respond to Jesus’ confrontation?
In our text, we see two types who got their toes stomped on by Jesus, with two very different responses. The scribes and Pharisees got their toes stomped on and responded with rage, discussing how they could get rid of Jesus. I believe that the man with the withered hand also got his toes stomped on, but he responded with obedient faith and was healed. The lesson for us is:
When Jesus stomps on your toes, don’t resist Him, but respond with obedient faith.
The setting was that Jesus was teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Note again the emphasis on Jesus’ teaching ministry. As Matthew Henry puts it, “Those that would be cured by the grace of Christ must be willing to learn the doctrine of Christ” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary [Fleming H. Revell], 5:638). In the synagogue was a man with a withered hand. The scribes and Pharisees were watching Jesus closely, to see if He would heal on the Sabbath. There is great irony here, because Jesus’ enemies tacitly admitted that He had the power to heal. This fact alone should have jarred them into recognizing that Jesus was sent by God and that He had God’s approval on His ministry. But instead, they were there to spy on Him. The word translated “watching closely” has the nuance of sinister motives, perhaps from looking sideways out of the corner of their eyes (Alfred Plummer, Luke ICC [Charles Scribner’s Sons], p. 169). They were there to find reason to accuse Jesus.
Luke notes that Jesus knew what they were thinking. He always does, by the way! He knows what you are thinking even now. So Jesus knew that what He was about to do would stomp hard on the toes of the scribes and Pharisees. He also knew that the manner in which He performed this miracle would put the man with the withered hand in the spotlight, which was probably uncomfortable for him. The man’s life was not in danger. He had lived with this problem for many years and certainly could live with it for another day. Jesus could have waited until after sundown that night to avoid a confrontation with the Pharisees. He could have taken the man aside privately to spare him any embarrassment. But instead, Jesus called the man front and center, spoke the word and healed him visibly in front of everyone. We should learn that …
The attitude with which you approach Jesus makes all the difference in the world. These scribes and Pharisees did not go to the synagogue that morning to worship God and learn how to be more pleasing to Him. They went to find fault with God’s messenger, Jesus. Some have suggested that they might even have planted the man in the synagogue to see whether Jesus would heal him in violation of their Sabbath laws. The rabbis taught that you could not heal on the Sabbath unless a life was in danger, a baby was being born, or a circumcision needed to be performed (Darrell Bock, Luke [Baker], 1:528). Anyone else could wait until the next day for treatment. This was not specified in the Hebrew Scriptures, but in the rabbinic laws. But because these Jewish leaders were following their traditions above Scripture, they approached Jesus with a critical spirit, looking for a reason to find fault with Him. And, He obliged them!
Your attitude walking in the door of the church is a major factor in determining whether you will leave with joy and a full heart or with bitterness and an empty heart. If you come in the door grumbling, trying to find fault with the church or with me as God’s messenger, you will find things to criticize. If you come in the door humbly to worship God and receive His resources for your need, you will leave blessed and rejoicing.
Even though Jesus was the best teacher who ever expounded the Scriptures, unfolding their meaning as no mere man could do, the scribes and Pharisees did not benefit at all from His teaching ministry. These were men who diligently studied the Scriptures in the original languages from their youth up. You would think that when a gifted teacher like Jesus opened up God’s Word, they would have drunk it in like thirsty sponges! Yet if you had asked them as they walked out of the synagogue, “What did you get from Jesus’ sermon?” they would have said, “Nothing!”
While every teacher of God’s Word must strive to teach in an interesting, relevant manner, it will avail nothing if the hearers do not come to learn with teachable hearts. Having a teachable heart is one mark of genuine conversion. Before we are saved, we are proud know-it-alls who are not subject to God or His Word. We find fault with the Bible and with anyone who tries to lay its teaching on us. But when God does a work of grace in our hearts, we become teachable.
John Calvin, in the preface to his commentary on the Psalms, gives a rare autobiographical sketch of how God had worked in his life. He was raised as a devout Catholic in France. His father at first determined that John would be a minister, but then changed his mind and sent him to law school. In obedience to his father, young John was pursuing that avenue of training when God, “by the secret guidance of his providence,” gave a different direction to his life. He describes it this way: “And first, since I was too obstinately devoted to the superstitions of Popery to be easily extricated from so profound an abyss of mire, God by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame, which was more hardened in such matters than might have been expected from one at my early period of life” (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker reprint], Psalms, p. xl).
The key thing in his conversion, Calvin says, was when God “subdued and brought [his] mind to a teachable frame.” When God does this work of grace in your heart, you notice several changes. For one thing, you begin to recognize and set aside the false assumptions that previously dominated your thinking. If you begin with wrong assumptions, you can prove anything. The Pharisees began with the false assumption, “Our interpretations of the Sabbath are correct.” So even though Jesus authenticated His teaching by many miracles, the Pharisees resisted Him and had to conclude, “He must be doing miracles by Satan’s power.” Their faulty assumption led to a disastrously faulty conclusion. Before you get saved, you assume, “The Bible is full of errors. Evolution is scientifically established. Morality is relative to one’s culture. Human reason is supreme. Etc.” When you are born again, you have to confront and discard your previous false assumptions.
Another mark of genuine conversion is that your pride is humbled so that you can admit that you do not know it all and that you have been greatly mistaken on a number of things. You begin to submit yourself and your thinking to God’s Word rather than to your own proud, but ludicrous, logic. Jesus confronts the Pharisees with the lunacy of their logic when He asks, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm, to save a life, or to destroy it?” (6:9). The answer was obvious, but it exposed the ridiculous logic (or illogic) of the Pharisees who were saying, “You can’t heal this man on the Sabbath, but it’s okay for us to go plot how to kill You on the Sabbath!” Like so many who are into religion, but whose hearts are not submissive to God, these men were majoring on the minors and neglecting the crucial matters. As Jesus put it on another occasion, they were straining gnats and swallowing camels (Matt. 23:24). They were plotting murder while defending the fine points of their views on Sabbath keeping!
If you have an unteachable spirit, Jesus and His Word will stomp all over your toes! You’ve got to humble yourself under God and His Word and apply it first and foremost to yourself—not to your spouse, not to your children, not to your parents, not to anyone else—but to yourself! Make sure that you apply it to your attitudes and thoughts, not just to external behavior.
Jesus deliberately provoked this confrontation with the Pharisees to expose the hardness of their hearts. They were motivated by selfishness, as seen by the fact that they couldn’t care less about this poor man and his needs. Only Luke the physician notes that it was his right hand that was withered. One of the apocryphal gospels reports that the man was a bricklayer, unable to work and support himself because of his infirmity. We don’t know if this was true, but whatever he did, it would be difficult not to have a functional right hand. But the Pharisees were more concerned about trapping Jesus in some error than they were about this man.
Their selfishness is exposed in their rage against Jesus when He merely speaks the word and heals the man. The Greek word “refers to a blinding, irrational rage that is likened to insanity” (Darrel Bock, Luke [IVP], pp. 116-117). They were not rejoicing that the man had been healed. They were raging because Jesus had violated their petty rules. Both selfishness and pride were behind their irrational anger.
If you struggle with anger, especially irrational, explosive anger that makes you want to harm someone else, Jesus is going to stomp on your toes! If you’ll stop and examine the source of your anger, invariably pride and selfishness will surface. Pride makes me angrily assert that I am right without even listening to the other side: “We don’t need to discuss the matter! I’m right and you’re wrong!” Selfishness means that I didn’t get my way, and I want my way! At the root of all anger is a refusal to submit to the sovereignty of God who is not doing things as I want them done!
Thus Jesus stomped on the toes of the Pharisees because they had a critical spirit, an unteachable spirit, and a selfish spirit. But I believe Jesus also stomped on the toes of the man with the withered hand. From him we learn that …
Put yourself in this man’s place. If you have any sort of physical handicap, the last thing you want is for someone to call attention to it in a public setting. If you have a blemish on your face, you try to camouflage it with make up. Perhaps this man kept his hand pulled up under his robe so that people wouldn’t notice it. Yet Jesus looks directly at the man and says, literally, “Rise and stand in the midst.” In other words, “Front and center where everyone can see your problem.” How embarrassing! Didn’t Jesus know how the man must feel? Think of what this did to his self-esteem! Why couldn’t Jesus have taken him aside privately and not called attention to his problem?
Our pride makes us want to hide our embarrassing problems both from public view and from Jesus’ view: “Withered hand? Why no, I just like to keep it up my sleeve. Nice weather we’ve been having, isn’t it?” But hiding your problems from Jesus and denying that you have them is a sure-fire way not to get them healed. Like this withered hand, it may be something that has hindered your life for years. It has kept you from being all that God wants you to be for His kingdom. Every time anyone gets near to exposing your problem, you quickly withdraw and divert attention from it or get defensive and angry.
But Jesus always goes for the jugular! To the immoral woman at the well, Jesus said, “Go call your husband and come back.” To the rich young ruler, He said, “Go sell everything you have and give it to the poor.” To the woman with the issue of blood (how embarrassing!), who just wanted quietly to get healed and be on her way, Jesus stopped in the busy crowd and demanded, “Who touched Me?” He made her confess in public what had happened to her. To this man Jesus said, “Stretch out your hand.”
What if the man had stretched out his good left hand? “See, it is perfectly good! No problems with my hand!” I think he would not have been healed. Right there in front of the whole crowd, he had to stretch out that embarrassingly withered right hand for it to be made whole. Even so, you may have an embarrassing sin problem that Jesus wants you to confess in order to be healed.
So Jesus often deliberately stomps on your toes. The question is, “How will you respond?” When Jesus stomps on your toes …
The response of the scribes and Pharisees was quite different than the response of the man with the withered hand. They went away in a rage, determined to do away with Jesus. He went away healed. Let’s learn that …
How do you respond when God’s Word confronts your sin? It may be a sin that you have kept hidden from public view. Perhaps you have convinced yourself that it’s really not a big problem, even though it actually causes you a lot of trouble. People often do this with drug and alcohol abuse. They hide the extent of it from everyone else and then they convince themselves that it’s really not so bad. Besides, they tell themselves that they need it to cope and probably everyone else does it to some extent, too. When the Lord confronts them with the problem through caring family or friends, they get defensive and angry. If they go to a church where the Bible is preached, and the sermons confront their sin, they drop out or find a church that isn’t so threatening. I often hear of people who stop coming here because my preaching stepped on their toes. Well, it steps on my toes, too! But the sad thing is, if you walk away from God’s Word, you won’t get healed.
The man with the withered hand pictures how we should respond when Jesus stomps on our toes. He could have refused to do what Jesus asked because of fear of the Pharisees. They easily could take out their anger on him: “You know what our law states. Why didn’t you wait and come back tomorrow for healing? This upstart Jesus is just undermining our heritage and way of life! You shouldn’t have gone along with Him!” But the man wanted to be healed even if it meant enduring the wrath of the Pharisees.
He could have refused to obey Jesus out of embarrassment, as I’ve already said. When Jesus asked him to stretch out his hand, he could have thought, “Is He mocking me? He knows that my problem is precisely that I cannot stretch out my hand!” He could have thought of a lot of excuses why he couldn’t do what Jesus asked him to do. But instead, recognizing his own impotence and need, he believed and obeyed Jesus. He was instantly healed.
There were several elements in his obedient faith that we must follow. First, he recognized and admitted his need and inability. He didn’t angrily say, “Why are you singling me out? I’m no different than anyone else here.” He didn’t deny or camouflage his problem. He didn’t offer to go fifty-fifty in helping Jesus solve the problem. If you want Jesus to heal your soul, you must admit, “I am a hopeless, helpless sinner. My thoughts, my attitudes, my words, and my deeds have continually violated Your holy Word. I cannot save myself. Lord, I need Your powerful Word to save me.”
Second, he believed in Christ’s ability to heal him. This isn’t stated, but it’s implicitly behind his action. Probably he had heard how Jesus had healed the paralytic. He knew how Jesus had healed everyone who gathered at Peter’s door one evening. He had just heard Jesus teach. Now Jesus was looking directly at him. He knew and believed that Jesus had the power from God to heal him. Even so, we must look at the records of Jesus’ life and ministry and come to the conclusion that He is who He claimed to be. He is God in human flesh, the only Mediator between sinners and a holy God. He is able to save my soul.
Third, he acted in obedience to Christ’s command. Jesus commanded him to do something impossible: “Stretch out your hand!” But with the command, Jesus imparted the power and ability to obey it. The man obeyed and was instantly healed. Jesus commands sinners to do something impossible: Repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15). If you will look to Him and cry out, “Lord, I cannot repent and believe by my ability, but grant me repentance and faith by Your grace,” He will do it and you will be instantly saved.
Although the text does not say so, I agree with G. Campbell Morgan’s insight (The Westminster Pulpit [Baker], 1:294) that Jesus didn’t heal this man so that he could wrap his healed hand in a bandage and protect it, but so that he could use it. By exercising and using it, he would maintain the new strength. Even so, when the Lord has delivered us from our sins, He expects us to use our healed lives in service for His glory.
Morgan also points out that the only man in the synagogue that Jesus sought out was the man with the greatest need. If you have a problem, it does not exclude you from Jesus. Rather, it makes you the target of His gracious call. You may have an embarrassing problem that you would rather not face up to and you certainly don’t want to expose it in public. But Jesus says to you, “Arise and stand in the midst! Admit that you have a sin problem.” He just kinda sorta stomps on your aorta! But if you will respond in obedient faith, He will say, “Stretch out your hand!” He will impart the power of His salvation, and you will be changed in your heart to the praise of the glory of His saving grace. When Jesus stomps on your toes, don’t resist Him. Respond with obedient faith and He will save you and use you for His glory.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Do you ever look around at all the hurting, needy people in the world and feel overwhelmed? I do. Every day on the news we hear about people in desperate need: victims of war, disease, crime, poverty, family and personal problems. Even if we limit it to Flagstaff or to the people who attend this church, we encounter a pile of needs!
We all know that God is the only final answer to those needs. People need to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. God’s people need to rely on His strength. God probably has many ways He could have used to dispense His truth to this hurting world. He could have used the angels who would have been more obedient and efficient at getting the job done than His followers have been. He could have spoken directly from heaven to every person on the globe. No doubt God had many other options. I can’t tell you for sure why He chose to do it the way He did. But we know from our text and other Scriptures that …
Jesus’ method for ministry was prayerfully to choose a few men to minister to the needy masses.
The setting for Jesus’ choosing the twelve apostles was the growing hostility against Him (6:12, “at this time”). Jesus knew that He would not always be with His followers (5:35), and so He spent the night alone on a mountain with God in prayer. The next morning He chose the twelve from among the larger number of His disciples. Then, Jesus descended to a place where a great multitude of needy people surrounded Him, eager to hear Him teach, to be healed of their diseases, and to be freed from the demonic forces that oppressed them. While verses 17-19 introduce the setting for the sermon that follows, they also tie in to the selection of the twelve. We see four things here: The needy masses; the powerful Master; the Master’s method of selecting a few to minister to the many; and the men the Master selected.
Luke refers to both “a great multitude of His disciples” and “a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon” (6:17). The multitude of disciples would include all those who were following Jesus. The fact that the great throng had left their normal jobs or daily routines and had traveled on foot, some for great distances, to reach Jesus shows their extreme neediness. Their desperate situation is also pictured in 6:19, as they all try to touch Jesus, since “power was coming from Him and healing them all.” Some of these people had carried their loved ones to that place on donkeys or carts on rough, rutted roads. Most were Jews, but probably many of those from Tyre and Sidon were Gentiles who had heard of Jesus. But whoever they were and wherever they were from, their sense of great need had impelled them to overcome the difficulties and get to Jesus.
Wherever you go and whomever you encounter in this world, you can know that the person has great needs because the entire human race is under the curse of sin and death. God imposed suffering, hardship, and death as the curse on the human race because of Adam and Eve’s sin (Gen. 3:14-19; Rom. 8:18-23). As those born under the curse of sin, we add to our misery by multiplying our own sins. As Job lamented, “Man is born for trouble as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). The suffering, sickness, sorrow, and pain that we all encounter, along with the inevitability of death, should cause each of us to realize our own alienation from the holy God and our desperate need for reconciliation with Him before we die.
According to an old fable, a man made an unusual agreement with Death. He told the grim reaper that he would willingly accompany him when it came time to die, but only on one condition—that Death would send a messenger well in advance to warn him. The agreement was made. Weeks winged away into months, and months into years. Then one bitter winter evening as the man sat alone thinking about all his material possessions, Death suddenly entered the room and tapped him on the shoulder: “Time to go!” The man was startled and cried out in despair, “You’re here so soon and without warning! I thought we had an agreement.”
Death replied, “I’ve more than kept my part. I’ve sent you many messengers. Look at yourself in the mirror and you’ll see some of them.” As the man complied, Death whispered, “Notice your hair! Once it was full and black, now it is thin and white. Look at how you cock your head to listen to my voice because you can’t hear very well. Observe how close you must get to the mirror in order to see yourself clearly. Feel the aches in your joints as you move around. Yes, I’ve sent many messengers through the years. I’ve kept my part. It’s too bad you aren’t ready, but it’s time for you to go.” (Story from “Our Daily Bread.”)
The inevitability of our own approaching death, not to mention the many other problems we all face, should show us our great need for the Lord Jesus. But, even if we recognize our great need and come to Jesus, we must be careful. Many of the people in this crowd just wanted to use Jesus to fix their problems so that they could get on with their own agendas. They did not want to follow Him as Savior and Lord. He was graciously healing them all and delivering them from demonic affliction. But if they remained in their sins and did not follow Jesus, their cure was only temporary, not eternal. They still had to die and face God’s judgment.
A few years ago, a couple came to the church I pastored in California. They made a profession of faith and went through the new believers’ class I taught. The wife had severe chronic back pain. Shortly after this, I learned that they were going to a “Science of Mind” cult, where apparently she had obtained some relief from her pain. When I talked to the husband about the spiritual dangers of that cult, he replied, “My wife has pain; we’re going to go anyplace where she can get relief.” They dropped out of the church.
But even if it had been Jesus who had given her relief, but she had not confessed her sinfulness and trusted in Christ as Savior, the outcome would be the same: she would still be alienated from God. So we dare not come to Jesus to fix our problems but not trust in Him as Savior and Lord. And we should not present Jesus to people as the One who can fix their temporary problems without warning them of the judgment to come. Needy people need to come to Jesus as the only Savior from sin and judgment.
Jesus is clearly the focal point of this passage. We see Him in private, praying to the Father; with His followers, choosing the twelve; and, in public, ministering to the needy mass of people.
The Master in private: Praying to the Father.
In light of the growing hostility and facing the need of selecting the twelve, Jesus went off to a mountain by Himself to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. This is the only instance in the New Testament of someone spending the whole night in prayer. As the perfect Man, the Lord Jesus shows us how we as men and women should live in total dependence on the Father. Since Luke emphasizes Jesus as the Son of Man, he often shows us the importance of prayer in Jesus’ life. When Jesus was baptized, He was praying (3:21). When His popularity was increasing, and multitudes were flocking to Him, Jesus “would often slip away to the wilderness and pray” (5:16). Just prior to Peter’s confession, Jesus had been praying (9:18). It was observing Jesus praying that led the disciples to ask, “Lord, teach us to pray (11:1, 2). And, near the end, Jesus faced the prospect of Peter’s denials and His own impending suffering on the cross through prayer (22:32, 41-45).
If our Lord was so aware of His need for communion with the Father, how much more should we be! Note, by the way, that Jesus had to get alone in order to pray. If we do not take the time to get alone with God, we will not be people of prayer. While we can and should pray even when we’re in a crowd, we cannot pray as we should unless we get alone with God.
The Master with His own: Choosing the Twelve.
One of the main things Jesus was praying for that night on the mountain was the Father’s guidance in the selection of the twelve apostles. These men would carry on His work after He was gone. Jesus would focus His time and effort on these men, teaching and training them for their mission. They in turn would teach and train others.
We don’t know for sure why Jesus chose twelve, although it probably is linked to the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus was making visible His claim on the nation. He was showing that He was beginning a new people of God to contain the new wine of His kingdom. Jesus later would choose 70 others for a mission tour (Luke 10:1). Beyond these specially appointed ones, many were following Him as disciples. But the twelve held a special place of importance. Jesus later told them that in His kingdom they would sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (22:30).
It is a mystery that although Jesus knew all things and prayed all night before choosing the twelve, He still chose Judas Iscariot. This is the mystery of the interplay between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. God determined before the foundation of the world that Judas, the son of perdition, would betray Jesus into the hands of sinners. And, yet, Judas was responsible for that terrible deed! Clearly, Jesus did not make a mistake in choosing Judas (John 6:70). He perished in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled (John 17:12). From this we can learn that even when we pray for God’s guidance and seek His wisdom, sometimes the outcome is less than perfect because of the inscrutable sovereign plan of God. But we still must seek God’s guidance and trust Him when the outcome is not what we had hoped for.
The Master in public: Ministering to the needy masses.
Jesus taught God’s Word, He healed the sick, and He cast demons out of others. He is an inexhaustible supply of God’s power, available to all who come to Him. All of Jesus’ servants are like batteries—they get drained when people tap into them. They can only give so much without recharging. But Jesus is like the wall socket—the power just keeps on coming! Unlike a wall socket, you can plug into Jesus all the physical and spiritual needs of this great multitude, and He still was not overloaded. When Jesus sends us out to do His work, we dare not try to meet needs ourselves or we will quickly wear out. We can only point hurting people to the Master who has an inexhaustible supply of grace and power.
Thus we see the needy masses and the all-sufficient Master. Also, we see …
We’ll look in a moment at the men Jesus chose. But for now, think about His method. He entrusted the entire kingdom program to these men. His method was to train them to train others. It was the principle of multiplying His work through others. As the apostle Paul told Timothy, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2).
The task of proclaiming the gospel to the world’s six billion people is daunting. But the principle of multiplication yields amazing results. You’ve heard examples like this: Suppose you had a choice of two jobs, each lasting 35 days. One pays $1,000 a day; the other pays a penny the first day and doubles the amount each day. If you took the first job, you would earn $35,000. But if you too the second job, you’d end up with $171,798,717.84!
I realize that the process doesn’t work perfectly with people. But if every Christian would not only lead one person each year to the Lord, but also train that person to reach one more, it wouldn’t take long for billions to hear, assuming that we are crossing cultural and linguistic barriers. So our goal should not only be to win people to Christ, but to disciple them so that they will reach others who will reach still others. If you don’t have a discipling mindset, you interrupt the process the Lord set in motion.
Thus we have the needy masses, the all-sufficient Master, and His method of multiplication. Finally, let’s look at …
It’s amazing how common these men were! I doubt if any of us would have chosen them, had we been there at the time. None of them were educated in the rabbinic schools. None were a part of the influential Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. None were successful businessmen, unless you count the formerly crooked tax collector, Matthew. At least four were fishermen. We simply don’t know much about many of the others.
There are four lists of the apostles: Matthew 10:2-4, Mark 3:16-19, here, and in Acts 1:13. The lists vary somewhat in order, but Peter is always first and Judas Iscariot is always last in the three synoptic gospel lists where he appears. Luke tells us Jesus named Simon “Peter,” which means “rock.” Except for Simon Peter in Luke 5:8, Luke has used the name Simon up to this point. After this, he uses Peter (except in 22:31 & 24:34). Peter’s brother Andrew isn’t mentioned often in Scripture, but every time we see him outside of the lists, he is bringing someone to Jesus. In fact, he brought Peter to Jesus and then was content to take a back seat to his brother’s leadership among the twelve. Although Peter was unstable and impulsive, he became the rock upon whose confession the church would be built. Though he failed Jesus by denying Him on the night of His betrayal, the Lord restored him and used him to win 3,000 converts on the Day of Pentecost.
James and John were brothers, and also cousins of Jesus. James was the first of the twelve to be martyred. John was the disciple Jesus especially loved, the one to whom Jesus from the cross entrusted the care of His mother. He became the author of the fourth Gospel, of the three Johannine Epistles, and of the Book of Revelation. Jesus called these brothers the sons of thunder, I think because of their fiery temperaments. But John became known as the apostle of love.
Philip was from the same town, Bethsaida, as Peter and Andrew. After Jesus found and called Philip, Philip found Nathanael, whom most think is the same as Bartholomew. The synoptics all link Philip and Bartholomew together. Philip seems to have been a bit slow to catch on to spiritual truth, but his slowness is for our benefit. In the upper room, he said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus gave the clear reply, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’” (John 14:8, 9).
Bartholomew is probably Nathanael (of John 1:45-51; 21:2). The name Bartholomew means “son of Talmai,” and thus was not his given name. The synoptic lists do not mention Nathanael, while John does not mention Bartholomew. In John 21:2, all the other men are apostles, and Nathanael is among them. Thus, it is likely that Bartholomew is Nathanael. All we know about him is recorded in the encounter between him and Jesus in John 1:45-51.
Matthew is the converted tax collector, Levi, author of the first Gospel (Luke 5:27-28; Matt. 9:9-17). Thomas, also called the Twin, is infamous for his doubting the resurrection (John 20:24-29). All we know about James the son of Alphaeus is his name. Most think that Simon the Zealot was a member of the radical political party that was known for its hatred of Rome, including those who collected taxes for Rome. I can’t help but wonder if he and Matthew exchanged some startled glances when Jesus picked them both! Most scholars identify Judas the son of James (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13) as Thaddaeus (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18). All we know of him is that he asked Jesus a question in John 14:22. Last on the list is the infamous traitor, Judas. Iscariot probably is a family name stemming from his home region in Judea. If so, he is the only non-Galilean among the twelve.
Every Christian is a disciple of Jesus. The word means a learner and it especially referred to someone who attached himself to a teacher in order to acquire his wisdom and knowledge. With regard to Jesus, it implies faith in Him as the Savior and Messiah of Israel. It also implies abandoning our former way of living for ourselves and following Jesus and His teaching. The disciple is learning to be like Jesus, his teacher and Lord.
But only a few Christians were called as apostles in the formal sense of the word. It means one who is sent out under the authority of the sending one. The twelve apostles and Paul were given special authority to lay the foundation of the church. When the eleven apostles sought a replacement for Judas after his defection and death, they stipulated that he must be a man who had accompanied them during the whole time of Jesus’ ministry and who was a witness of His resurrection (Acts 1:21, 22). In this restricted sense, of course, there are no apostles after the first century. No one today has authority over local churches in the same sense as the original apostles.
But in the sense of being “sent out ones,” there are apostles today. We call them missionaries. They are sent out under the authority of the church to plant churches in other cultures. So the office of apostle as designating the twelve and Paul is no longer functional. But the gift of apostle in the sense of missionary is valid.
It is clear that the Lord sovereignly chose these twelve men for this office of apostle. It was His choice, not theirs. They did not volunteer; He conscripted them. While there will never be any others chosen to this high office, there is a principle here that applies to us all: The Holy Spirit sovereignly distributes spiritual gifts as He wills (1 Cor. 12:4-11). This means that He has gifted and called every believer into a sphere of service in the body of Christ. You don’t volunteer to serve Jesus; you are drafted! If you are a believer in Christ but you do not have a ministry mindset, where you are seeking to be used by God as He directs, you are a disobedient believer! Jesus did not save you so that you can sit around and be happy. He saved you to be His chosen instrument to testify to others of His grace and to build up the saints through the exercise of your gifts.
There is one other lesson we can apply from this list of the apostles. You don’t have to be flashy or famous or influential in the worldly sense to be used by God. We all know about Peter, James, and John, but what do we know about James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, or Judas the son of James? Not much! Nothing, really. And yet these men were a part of the twelve apostles who will sit on twelve thrones judging the tribes of Israel! Although they were not outwardly well known or influential as Peter was, they were faithful men who served according to their gifts. That’s what God requires of you and me.
Let me ask, do you see the masses and their great needs? Are you burdened for them with compassion as Jesus was? If you feel overwhelmed by the great needs, then look to the all-sufficient Master, who has grace and power to spare. It’s His job to heal and save them. But how does He do it? Through choosing faithful men and women to multiply His grace to others. He chooses common men and women from a variety of backgrounds and conscripts them into His service. If you’ve trusted in Him as Savior and Lord, He has appointed you to serve in His cause.
A familiar legend reports a conversation between Jesus and the angel Gabriel after the Lord’s ascension back into heaven. They talked about what had happened down here—of Christ’s birth, His life and ministry, His death and resurrection. Then Gabriel asked, “And how will the people of the world get to know about all of it?” Christ’s reply was, “Well, I have a little company of friends there whom I have asked to publish it.” “But what if, for any reason, they let you down and fail to do it?” Gabriel asked. Christ replied, “I have no other plan.”
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
“And they all lived happily ever after.” We all like stories with a happy ending. We read them to our children and grandchildren. But, as grown-ups, we know that such stories are not true. Living happily ever after only happens in the realm of make believe.
Or, does it? In what is perhaps His most well known teaching, “The Beatitudes,” Jesus presents the qualities that make for a happy or blessed life. As Luke reports the teaching, four times Jesus pronounces blessings on people with these four qualities and four times He pronounces woes on people with the opposite qualities. To be blessed is to have inner joy and happiness because God’s favor is upon you. To have woe is to have sorrow and pain because God is against you. Thus Jesus is showing us how to be supremely happy or supremely miserable.
Stated that way, you may wonder why anyone would choose to be supremely miserable, especially when the offer of supreme happiness is set before him or her. But things aren’t quite that simple, because the happiness Jesus offers often entails short term trials and pain, but eventual and eternal joy, whereas the world offers short term gratification, but fails to take into account the eternal perspective. As Leon Morris observes, “Jesus promised His followers that they would be absurdly happy; but also that they would never be out of trouble” (Luke [IVP/Eerdmans, p. 127). Due to the blindness of sinful human hearts and the deception of sin, many in the world pursue happiness in ways that seemingly will succeed. But Jesus boldly asserts that those who follow the world’s ways will come up empty. He draws a distinct line and challenges us to come over to His side. As William Barclay states, “The challenge of the beatitudes is, ‘Will you be happy in the world’s way, or in Christ’s way?” (The Daily Study Bible, Luke [Westminster], p. 77).
Before we examine this first section of Jesus’ teaching, we need to touch on several matters. The most obvious question is whether or not this sermon in Luke 6 is the same as the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 5-7. The bottom line is, we can’t know for certain. There are solid commentators on both sides of the issue. Luke’s version is much shorter than Matthew’s (30 verses compared to 107), and there are some differences in the parts that overlap. Both versions are obviously summaries of longer messages that Jesus delivered. Both begin with a set of beatitudes and end with the parable of building the two houses, although there are differences in many of the details.
The most obvious difference is that Matthew 5:1 reports that Jesus went up on a mountain to deliver this sermon, whereas Luke 6:17 states that He descended to a level place. Those who like to look for contradictions in the Bible are quick to pounce on this as an example. But even if the two accounts are the same sermon on the same occasion, it need not be contradictory. Jesus had gone up on the mountain alone to pray. He descended to meet with His disciples and with the multitude. There easily could have been a plateau on the mountain that was large enough for the multitude to gather on. From Luke’s perspective, Jesus descended to this level place. From Matthew’s angle, Jesus went up on the mountain to teach. It just depends on how you look at the event.
So the sermon could be the same sermon at the same locale, but with variations in how it was reported. Or, it could be that Jesus taught the same material with slight variations on more than one occasion, as almost every preacher has done. We can’t know for sure, but neither view involves us in contradictions. I’m inclined to the view that both sermons are the same, although reported from different slants.
The sermon in Luke falls into three sections: in 6:20-26, Jesus draws a distinct line between His followers and others and pronounces blessings on the former and woes on the latter; in 6:27-38, Jesus spells out the primary ethic of His kingdom, the practice of love; and, in 6:39-49, He emphasizes the importance of obedience to His teaching. He addresses the sermon primarily to His disciples (6:20), but obviously there are appeals to outsiders as well. The blessings are aimed at encouraging and strengthening Jesus’ followers in the face of mounting and inevitable opposition and persecution, but they also serve to draw in outsiders with the intriguing promise of future reversal. The woes warn believers of dangers to avoid, but they also confront unbelievers with the future consequences of their current behavior. The entire sermon shows Jesus’ disciples (i.e., all Christians) how we should live. But it also shows unbelievers and hypocrites their need for repentance because of the huge gap between their behavior and Jesus’ teaching.
With that as a brief overview, let’s focus on 6:20-26, where Jesus sets forth the contrasts of blessings and woes on four groups of people. Since He specifically is addressing His disciples, we should see the primary intent as giving encouragement and instruction to believers. God will bless them though the world may hate them. But they must be on guard against the world and its mixed up values. But there is also a secondary application for those caught up with the world. Jesus is warning them of a coming reversal when they will be left empty if they do not repent. Jesus is teaching:
To live happily ever after, live decisively for God’s kingdom and reject the world’s values.
The theme of happiness is stressed in the series of blessings and woes. The idea of living decisively comes through in the clear line Jesus draws between the two ways of God’s kingdom versus the world’s values. The aspect of living happily ever after is underscored in the future focus of the blessings and woes.
Jesus draws a clear line between two groups of people, so that you must identify yourself with one group or the other. You can’t straddle the line. On the one hand are those who are poor, who hunger now, who weep now, and who are despised by men because of their identification with Jesus. These folks are blessed because of both present, but mainly future, rewards. On the other hand are those who are rich, who are well-fed now, who laugh now, and who are acclaimed by men. These are under woe because of what awaits them.
Immediately we are faced with some interpretive problems. Is Jesus extolling poverty in a material sense or should we take it spiritually, in line with Matthew’s “poor in spirit”? Is Jesus commending hunger above a healthy diet? Is He promoting weeping and sadness above laughter and joy? Is there some virtue in having people hate you? How should we understand Jesus’ words?
In the first place, we would be wrong to interpret these words to refer in blanket fashion to the financially poor, the physically hungry, the emotionally grieving, and those hated by their fellow men. The Old Testament urges compassion toward the deserving poor, but it also heaps ridicule on those who are poor because they are lazy or foolish. Augustine pointed out how the poor Lazarus laid his head on the rich Abraham’s bosom. Later in Luke, some wealthy women are favorably mentioned who helped support Jesus and the apostles (8:1-3). And, Jesus welcomes the rich tax collector, Zaccheus, into the kingdom (19:1-10).
So Jesus is not issuing a blanket approval on everyone who is financially poor, nor a blanket condemnation on everyone who is financially rich. The same can be said of the other groups. God graciously gives us food to meet our needs, and there is no inherent virtue in going hungry. The Bible commands God’s people to be filled with joy and praise, and Jesus is not contradicting that here. There are many of God’s servants who are commended and thought well of in the Bible. So there is nothing inherently wrong with these categories as such. We would be mistaken to understand Jesus to be teaching that simply by being in these categories a person is somehow blessed or under woes to come.
So how should we take Jesus’ words? One key is to remember that Jesus is talking to His disciples. Luke has already mentioned twice that these men left everything to follow Jesus (5:11, 28). A second key is that these men are suffering “for the sake of the Son of Man” (6:22). Jesus compares their ill treatment to that of the prophets in Old Testament times (6:23). Thus Jesus is talking about godly people who have given up opportunities to further themselves in the world in order to follow Him. In other words, there is a definite spiritual underpinning to Jesus’ categories.
This spiritual slant is further supported by Luke’s previous use of the terms. In Mary’s song (1:46-55), she praises God who has “filled the hungry with good things, and sent away the rich empty-handed” (1:53). Jesus cited Isaiah 61:1 when He preached in the synagogue in Nazareth, that the Spirit had anointed Him “to preach the gospel to the poor” (4:18). These terms, “poor, hungry, and those who weep,” are not exclusively spiritual, in that those who are destitute of life’s essentials are often much more aware of their spiritual need before God. Those who are rich in this world’s goods often do not sense their desperate need for God. But the terms are primarily spiritual in that Jesus did not come to offer Himself on the cross to deliver men from physical poverty, hunger, and grief. He came to deliver sinners from their spiritual poverty, spiritual hunger, and grief over sin. One writer explains,
The hungry are men who both outwardly and inwardly are painfully deficient in the things essential to life as God meant it to be, and who, since they cannot help themselves, turn to God on the basis of His promise. These men, and these alone, find God’s help in Jesus. They are not an existing social or religious group…. They are believers who seek help from Jesus because of their own helplessness. (L. Goppelt, cited by Darrell Bock, Luke [Baker], 1:575).
Leon Morris (p. 127) explains further,
He is not blessing poverty in itself: that can as easily be a curse as a blessing. It is His disciples of whom Jesus is speaking. They are poor and they know that they are without resource. They rely on God and they must rely on Him, for they have nothing of their own on which to rely…. The rich of this world often are self-reliant. Not so the poor.
And so when Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor,” He is referring to those who have recognized that the greatest need in life is spiritual, not material. Rather than pursuing a life of accumulating the world’s goods, these people have recognized their spiritual poverty before God and have come to Him, often at the expense of worldly success. When Jesus says, “Woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full,” He is referring to those who are living as if this world is all there is. They are not rich toward God by laying up treasures in heaven (Luke 12:21). They are living for selfish pleasures and comforts and they are relying on themselves to gain these things. In light of eternity, it’s a foolish way to live.
When Jesus blesses the hungry and pronounces woe on the well-fed, He is not speaking primarily in physical terms. The main point is spiritual. Those who are physically hungry are truly blessed if they come to God in their need and learn to rely on Him for all their needs as their caring Father. Those who are physically well-fed are truly to be pitied if they ignore their spiritual starvation and need for God, who sustains us both physically and spiritually.
When Jesus blesses those who weep now, He is referring to His followers who suffer in this wicked world because of their identification with Him. They will get the last laugh because God will welcome them to His sumptuous banquet table. Those who laugh now are like the rich man in Jesus’ parable, who say to themselves, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?” (Luke 12:19, 20).
When Jesus blesses those who are hated, ostracized, insulted, and spurned for His sake, He compares their treatment to that of the godly prophets. The reason for their ill treatment is that they have stood for God’s truth and righteousness, which sinners, especially religious hypocrites, hate. Jesus’ disciples who are so mistreated should rejoice and leap for joy, because they have great reward in heaven. But Jesus compares those who are well-spoken of to the false prophets. It’s never hard to gain a following: Just flatter people and tell them how wonderful they are. They will flock to hear you and buy your books. You will be famous and successful on earth, but rejected in heaven.
One reason Jesus paints with these broad strokes of black and white, with no gray, is to draw the line and make us examine ourselves. Which side are you on? I immediately want to say, “Lord, how about someone who isn’t poor or rich? I’m just kind of middle class! How about someone who isn’t starving, but I’m not a glutton? I’m not going around weeping, but neither am I a comedian. People aren’t throwing rotten eggs at me, but neither am I Mr. Popular. Isn’t there room for a guy like me in the middle?” Jesus replies, “No, you’re either decidedly for Me or you are decidedly against Me. There’s no middle ground.” He forces us to get off the fence and decide: Are we living for this life and its temporary pleasures or are we living for Jesus and His eternal kingdom?
The kingdom Jesus speaks of is both a present reality and a future promise. To the poor who have followed Him, Jesus says, “Yours is the kingdom of God.” They presently possess it. In this sense, the kingdom means living decidedly under the lordship of Jesus, obeying His commands, living with the aim of pleasing Him. But, the kingdom is also a future promise, in that Jesus plainly taught that He would return to reign on the throne of David and to rule the nations with a rod of iron. In this sense, Jesus’ followers all mourn at the present reign of darkness under the prince of this world, and we long for the soon-coming day when, according to His promise, there will be a new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3:13).
So, if you want to live happily ever after, you must see that there are two and only two ways to live. You can live for the things and pleasures of this world, which are destined to perish. Or, you can submit yourself to Jesus Christ and live for His present and coming kingdom. Every follower of Jesus, not just the super-dedicated, will be in the second camp. There is no middle ground, sort-of Christian, with one foot in the world and one in Jesus’ kingdom. You must get off the fence and declare yourself to be on Jesus’ side.
Jesus’ teaching here presupposes and demands an eternal perspective. Without that, His words are nonsense. Why be poor, hungry, sorrowful, and hated in this life if that’s all there is? Critics of Christianity will often scoff, “You believe in pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die.” The proper response is, “Absolutely! And you’re a fool not to believe it!” The Bible is abundantly clear that the hope of the believer is with God in eternity, not in this short life on earth (see 1 Cor. 15:19, 32; Heb. 11:13-16, 35-40). As Charles Simeon put it, “He alone is happy, who is happy for eternity” (Expository Outlines on the Whole Bible [Zondervan], 12:345).
Jesus here boldly asserts that there will be some startling reversals in eternity. He often taught this with the aphorism, “The last shall be first, and the first last” (see Matt. 19:30; 20:16; Luke 13:30). The world, the flesh, and the devil deceive us by offering us instant gratification through the pleasures of sin. We look around at other sinners who seem to be having a good time in life and we wrongly conclude that we’re missing out. The psalmist was there when he looked on the easy life of the wicked and concluded that he had turned from sin to God in vain. What got the psalmist back in focus? “When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction” (Ps. 73:16-18).
D. L. Moody observed, “This life is all the heaven the worldling has, and all the hell the saint ever sees.” The believer knows that there is a God who will judge the world, and so he adopts a pilgrim mindset. We desperately need to recover this eternal perspective in our day. While I realize that the Four Spiritual Laws booklet has been greatly used to lead many to faith in Christ, in my judgment it focuses too much on the abundant life here and now and not enough on the hope of heaven and the fear of hell. But the emphasis of the Bible is clearly on the latter. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36). You can’t straddle the line. Followers of Jesus focus on the life to come, not on the fleeting pleasures of this present world. That’s the only way to true happiness.
Leon Morris (p. 126) observes, “Together with the following woes, these beatitudes make a mockery of the world’s values. They exalt what the world despises and reject what the world admires.” Clearly Jesus is saying that the values of His followers are radically different than the values of the world. There should be clear line between the believer and the person of this world in terms of how we think, what we do, what we seek after, and how we use money.
Yet, sadly, all too often there is no discernible difference between professing Christians and their worldly neighbors, except that the Christians go to church services. The worldly guy is living for personal peace and increasing affluence; so is the Christian. The worldly guy seeks pleasure vicariously by watching immoral, profane TV shows and videos; so does the Christian. The worldly guy spends his money to increase his own comfort and pleasure; so does the Christian, except for the two or three percent average that he gives. The worldly guy thinks that all good people who do the best they can will get to heaven; shockingly, so do vast numbers of those professing to be Christian. A recent Barna Report asked, “Can a good person earn his way to heaven?” Those responding “agree strongly” or “somewhat agree” included 22% of Assembly of God, 30% of nondenominational, 38% of Baptists, 54% of Lutherans, 58% of Episcopalians, 59% of Methodists, and 82% of Catholics (reported in “Viewpoint,” Reformation & Revival Ministries May/June, 1998). Christians must think biblically.
These poor, hungry, sorrowful, and rejected people Jesus refers to have abandoned the world’s support system and have cast themselves totally on God for their daily bread, for their personal and emotional needs, and for their eternal well-being. The world’s rich, well-fed, happy men of acclaim are trusting in themselves and their own accomplishments. But, as Darrell Bock writes, “An attitude of independence from God is the road to destruction” (Luke [Baker], 1:582). The follower of Jesus trusts in Him totally for sustenance, joy, approval, and salvation. We live to hear from Him some day, “Well done, good and faithful slave;... enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21).
A question I often ask people who come to me for counsel is, “Do you want God’s blessing in your life?” Of course, we all instinctively want to answer, “Yes, of course I do!” But before you answer so quickly, stop and think about it. How you answer that question will make a huge difference in how you live. The person living for God’s blessing has deliberately decided to reject the world’s values and to live under the lordship of Jesus as King. Turning his back on this fleeting world and its pleasures, he is living in light of eternity. Letting go of self-sufficiency and self-confidence, he has cast himself on Jesus both for salvation from God’s judgment and for sustenance in this life. So, ask yourself, “Do I want God’s blessing on my life?” It’s the only way to live happily ever after. Jesus tells you how to have it: Live decisively for God’s kingdom and reject the world’s values.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Marla and I enjoy accounts about people who try to conquer Mount Everest. We read Peter Jenkins’ Across China and we recently saw the Imax movie, “Everest.” But even though I enjoy reading about other people’s efforts to climb the world’s highest peak, I would never try it myself, even if someone offered to pay the $60,000 or more cost for me. Frankly, I’m not interested in investing the time, effort, and risk necessary to succeed.
The text before us is the Mount Everest of Christian behavior. Jesus sets the standard of love as high as it can possibly be set. He says that our love for others must match the love of God Most High, who is kind to ungrateful and evil men (6:35). He not only commands us to love family and friends. Jesus radically requires us to love even enemies who have aggressively hated us, cursed us, and taken what rightfully belongs to us. Jesus’ standard here is so high that many of us may respond as we would to the offer to climb Mount Everest: “No way!” We don’t even want to try, because it seems utterly impossible.
But if we are disciples of Jesus, we do not have the option of responding that way. This radical love is not just a special requirement for the super-committed. It is clearly God’s standard for all His children. If Jesus is our Savior and Lord, we must struggle to understand and apply His teaching here. While we may not reach the summit in this life, we should die trying. In setting forth the primary ethic of His kingdom, Jesus shows us that …
God’s radical love requires our kind treatment of those who mistreat us.
God’s radical love extends to all people, even to those who are ungrateful and evil. As His children, our love should reflect His love. While in Matthew Jesus sets forth this radical love against the backdrop of pharisaic misinterpretations, Luke, writing primarily for Gentiles, sets it before us in raw form. He shows us that we must love all people, not just those who are nice to us. Further, it is not enough passively to endure wrongs. We must actively engage in good deeds toward those who have treated us wrongfully. Our love must be self-denying, not self-seeking. We must set aside what we think to be our personal rights if we want to follow our Lord in practicing this radical love. If anyone here thinks, “I do love others as Jesus here commands,” I’d like to talk to your family to see if they agree! Perhaps once or twice someone here has made it to the summit of this Mount Everest of love for a brief visit. But none of us lives up there consistently. We all have room to grow!
Before you climb a mountain, you need to be clear on where the summit actually is, so that you don’t climb the wrong mountain. Many people have misunderstood Jesus’ words here and thus have headed toward the wrong summit. For example, some have taken Jesus to be teaching pacifism, both on a personal and governmental level. Others have used Jesus’ words to advocate indiscriminately giving to anyone who makes a request. I read of a university student who gave everything he had to help several alcoholics who asked him for money. He went without food and went bankrupt because he thought he was obeying Jesus’ teaching here.
So we must follow sound principles of interpretation and application as we come to these difficult commands. On the one hand, we don’t want to explain away their radical nature, but on the other hand we don’t want to take them with such a strict literalism that we end up in conflict with other Scriptures. Jesus seems to be stating these commands with hyperbole in order to shock us with the radical nature of His standard of love in contrast to the world’s standard that most of us assume as true. I offer four guidelines for properly understanding Jesus’ words here:
Look at the totality of Scripture. We must assume that Jesus did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them (Matt. 5:17). Nor did Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, contradict Jesus. Thus when Proverbs mocks the lazy man who won’t work or the fool who misspends his money, and when Paul stipulates that the man who will not work should not be given food, they are not contradicting Jesus’ teaching here.
Look at the context of this passage. As we saw in our last study Jesus is painting with bold strokes in black and white to draw a contrast between His way and the commonly accepted way of that culture. To jolt His hearers out of their self-complacency and to show them their failure to love as God demands, Jesus boldly draws this line. But He does not get into the details and finer nuances of application that other Scriptures provide.
Look at Jesus’ life to interpret His words. Jesus lived what He taught. By looking at how He lived, we can properly understand and apply what He taught. If Jesus was teaching passive non-resistance to all evil men, how do you explain His making a scourge of cords and driving the merchandisers out of the temple? When Jesus was struck on the cheek during His trial, He did not retaliate, but neither did He offer His other cheek. Rather, He confronted the illegality of His mistreatment by stating, “If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?” (John 18:23). While Jesus was generous and not greedy, He did not go around naked because He had given away His coat and tunic.
Look at your heart and apply the spirit of Jesus’ teaching to yourself, not to others. Clearly, Jesus is confronting our sinful motives of selfishness, greed, and standing for our rights. We’re all prone to blame others and exonerate ourselves. But Jesus here aims at our hearts and challenges us to apply it. When He says, “But I say to you who hear” (6:27), He is contrasting it with those who are under woe because they do not hear so as to obey. Those who really hear what Jesus says will not point the finger at others; they will point it at themselves and will deal with their wrong motives. To sum up, we should not take Jesus’ commands with a strict literalism that contradicts other Scripture, but neither should we dodge their cutting edge. They convict us all and we all need to grow in this radical love. Jesus’ teaching falls under four points:
Jesus assumes that His followers will have enemies. He has just stated that His disciples are blessed when men hate them, ostracize them, heap insults on them, and spurn their names as evil for His sake (6:22). We shouldn’t have enemies because of our obnoxious or insensitive behavior. But if we live righteously and hold firmly to God’s truth, we will have enemies in this evil world. Our lives will convict sinners who will try to bring us down so that they can justify their own sins. But we must respond to all mistreatment by actively loving those who wrong us, never by retaliating.
Jesus begins with a general statement, “Love your enemies.” The word is “agape,” love that is committed to the highest good of the one loved. Such love is not primarily a feeling, but an action stemming from an attitude. Thus it can be commanded. The attitude of love thinks about the other person as a fellow sinner who needs to know the forgiveness of sins that is in Jesus. We were once just as this sinner now is—selfish, blinded by sin, and alienated from God. But thankfully, God showed us mercy. This attitude frees us to act in ways that show God’s love and grace to the wrongdoer. Thus Jesus adds, “Do good to those who hate you.” It is not enough just to refrain from getting even. It is not sufficient to separate yourself from the one who has wronged you. Jesus says that we must actively do good to the wrongdoer!
You say, “How do I do this?” Jesus gives some specific examples. “Bless those who curse you.” If a person verbally attacks you, respond with kind words. If he calls you names or cusses you out, don’t respond by telling him off, even if you avoid using swear words. Respond graciously. You might say, “I’m sorry if I did something to offend you. I don’t want there to be anything between us. Can we talk about it?”
Jesus gives us further direction: “Pray for those who mistreat you.” He doesn’t mean to pray the imprecatory psalms! He means to pray sincerely for their well-being, which probably includes their conversion to Christ. You can rest assured that if the person does not repent, God will bring His righteous judgment upon him in due time. But rather than feeling sorry for yourself because you have been mistreated, feel compassion for this sinner who is headed for hell, if God does not intervene. Pray that God would be merciful in saving the person for His glory.
Then Jesus gives His well known “turn the other cheek” teaching. This often has been wrongly interpreted to mean that a Christian should never defend himself against aggression. It also has been used to argue that believers should not join the military or the police force. But Jesus was not talking about governmental force. Scripture gives governments the right to bear the sword against evil doers (Rom. 13:1-4). When soldiers asked John the Baptist what they should do to repent, he did not tell them to get out of the military, but rather not to use force wrongfully (3:14). So Jesus’ teaching does not apply on that level.
Neither does Jesus mean that we should never confront those who are in sin. He drove the merchandisers out of the temple. He strongly confronted the Pharisees in their hypocrisy (Matthew 23). He rebuked His disciples when they were wrong (“Get behind me, Satan”; Matt. 16:23). Biblical love does not mean being a doormat. Turning the other cheek does not mean that a godly wife should silently endure physical abuse from an evil husband. She can and must confront his sin in a proper spirit, and if it continues, call the authorities that God has ordained for her protection. If someone is threatening your life or actually attempting to kill you, you must defend yourself and call the police. The same is true if we witness someone else being attacked.
So, what does it mean to turn the other cheek? Jesus is confronting our selfish spirit that stands on our rights and demands that the other person pay for his offenses. In Matthew’s account, Jesus stipulates getting hit on the right cheek. To be hit on the right cheek, a right-handed man would have to give you a backhanded slap, which was an insult. Even if Luke is referring to someone hitting you on the jaw, the principle is the same: You don’t have to fight back and defend your honor. Again, this is not referring to someone who is trying to kill you. But if a person loses his temper and hits you once, Jesus is saying, “Don’t reciprocate.” Don’t have the spirit that is quick to prove, “No one is going to mess with me and get away with it!” That spirit stems from selfishness and pride. We are commanded to radical love that does not retaliate.
When Jesus commands us to offer the other cheek, He is not speaking literally. Doing that might only provoke the other person to further wrong. He means, don’t let the person’s insult or wrong toward you hinder you from further ministry to him. I read of an Irish boxer who got converted and became a preacher. One day as he was setting up his tent for meetings, some local toughs came and began heckling him. One of them took a swing at the preacher and hit him on the cheek, knocking him down. He got up and pointed to his other cheek. The guy clobbered him there, knocking him down again. As he rose to his feet, the preacher took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves, clinched his fists, and said, “The Lord gave me no further instructions.” Pow! He missed Jesus’ point! We should not retaliate in a spirit of getting even or standing up for our rights. Setting aside all selfishness and pride, we should seek to minister to an abusive person.
We should interpret Jesus’ next example (6:29b) in the same manner. If someone takes away your coat, don’t withhold your shirt. Those were the only two pieces of clothing people wore in that day. Jesus didn’t mean literally to give him your underwear so that you go naked! Jesus is hitting our greed and selfishness. We wrongly value our things more than we care about people. We’re so prone to take offense over small wrongs committed against us. Like a slap in the face, taking your coat is a trifling offense. This doesn’t apply if someone is ripping off your life savings or your family’s home. It does not mean leaving your door unlocked or your possessions unguarded. That only encourages thieves and it isn’t good stewardship. But it does mean that we should not be so attached to our belongings that we become angry, hateful people if someone takes something from us. Let it go and thank God that life is far more than possessions.
We also must interpret Jesus’ final command (6:30) in the same way. He does not mean that we should indiscriminately give money or goods to everyone who comes along and asks. Nor does He mean that it is wrong to hold people accountable for things they have borrowed from us. Biblical love seeks the highest good of the other person, and it is not seeking his highest good to foster his irresponsible behavior. As Leon Morris states, “If Christians took this one absolutely literally there would soon be a class of saintly paupers, owning nothing, and another of prosperous idlers and thieves” (Luke [IVP/Eerdmans], p. 130). Rather, Jesus is confronting our greed and selfishness and encouraging us to be generous people. In all of these things, His radical love requires us to respond to wrongs with positive ministry toward the wrongdoer, not with retaliation or personal vengeance. Jesus sums this up in the next principle, known as “the golden rule”:
If everyone would follow this simple rule, we would have no angry quarrels, no lying, stealing, abusive speech, or violence. Everyone would treat everyone else with respect and kindness, being sensitive to their feelings. It would be heaven on earth!
Most of us respond by thinking, “Yes, if my wife and kids would just do what you’re saying, our home would be great! I hope they’re listening!” But we can’t point the finger at others. We must obey this radical command in spite of how others respond or treat us. As someone has said, “The Golden Rule is of no use to you whatever unless you realize that it is your move.”
So again, Jesus confronts our selfishness, because to obey this principle we must think of others and not of ourselves. How will the other person feel? How would I feel if I were in his place? A New Year’s resolution read, “Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the wrong. Sometime in life you will have been all of these yourself.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow observed, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”
The golden rule deals the death blow to selfishness. Loving self is at the root of all our conflicts and relational problems. Why are we sensitive so that we get our feelings hurt? Because we love self more than we love the other person. Why do we get angry and demand our rights? Because we love self more than we love the other person. Why do we blow up or clam up rather than talk through our problems in a spirit of seeking to build up the other rather than tear him down? Because we love self more than we love the other person. Contrary to current “wisdom,” we do not need to learn to love ourselves. We need to regard others as more important than ourselves (Phil. 2:3, 4). Even if the other person is wrong, ask yourself, “How would I want to be treated if I were wrong?” Treat the other person that way.
Jesus’ point here is that His followers must go far beyond the way that the world loves. Sinners (Jesus means unconverted people who do not regard God) love those who love them (6:32). Sinners do good to those who do good to them (6:33). Sinners lend money to other sinners in order to receive back either the money with interest or other favors (6:34). In other words, sinners have selfish motives in their “good deeds.” What’s in it for me? If I treat this guy right, he might help me out in the future.
But Jesus’ followers must show radical love toward others from pure motives, namely, to please the God who loved us and gave His Son to redeem us from our sins. If God is pleased, then the response of the other person does not hinder our love. If he is mean to me, I can still show him God’s love. If he never says “thank you,” I can still love him. In verse 34, Jesus does not mean that we should foolishly loan money to a scoundrel who probably will never pay us back. That would only foster his irresponsible behavior, which is not to love him. Rather, Jesus is making us examine our motives, to see whether we operate as the world does, for personal advantage, or whether we genuinely seek the welfare of others, even if there’s nothing in it for us. Our love for people should go beyond the world’s way of loving.
Thus the radical love Jesus calls us to requires that we respond to wrongs with positive ministry, not retaliation. It requires treating others as we wish to be treated. It exceeds the world’s standards of love. Finally,
Jesus sums up His directives in this verse. When He says that “you will be sons of the Most High,” he does not mean that you become a child of God by your loving deeds, but rather that you prove or show it in that way. We bear His likeness, just as our physical children bear a resemblance to us as parents. God shows His kindness to ungrateful and evil people by giving them life, health, food, clothing, and many other blessings. Most of these people never express their gratitude to God. Yet He keeps on giving it to them. When we show God’s radical love by being kind to those who mistreat us, by treating others as we wish to be treated, by giving when there’s nothing in it for us, sometimes those in the world will notice and ask, “Why are you different?” That’s when we tell them about God’s love in Jesus.
Sometimes we hear of a lifeguard who risked his life to save someone from drowning. Say you’re the lifeguard, and you’ve been watching a beautiful girl on the beach. She goes in the water, and the undertow begins sucking her out to sea. She calls for help. Will you go to rescue her? Probably you’d be out there in a flash!
But let’s say that as you’re sitting in your lifeguard tower you see a guy who wronged you terribly. He lied about you and stole your girl friend. Even worse, he caught you alone one night and beat you up, even though you did nothing to provoke him. He goes into the water and is drowning. Would you go to rescue him?
Jesus did: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). That’s the radical love of Jesus, that He would offer Himself in the place of sinners who ignored Him, broke His commandments, and refused to let Him be the rightful Lord of their lives. The only way you can begin to climb the Mount Everest of loving others with Jesus’ radical love is to respond to His love by trusting Him as your Savior and Lord. Then the Holy Spirit will give you the power to love others as Jesus loves you. If you know Christ, take a few more steps up the mountain this week. Think of someone who has wronged you. Pray for an opportunity to do something kind for him or her. Let God’s radical love that found you as a sinner flow through you to those who have mistreated you.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
A young man was filling out a college questionnaire to help determine roommate compatibility. By the questions “Do you make your bed regularly?” and “Do you consider yourself a neat person?” he checked the box marked “Yes.”
His mother read his answers and, knowing they were far from the truth, asked why he had lied. “What?” he replied. “And have them stick me with some slob!”
We’re all prone to excuse our own faults and magnify the faults of others. You know how it goes: “I’m quiet, you’re unassertive; he’s a wimp.” “I’m concerned; you’re curious; he’s nosy.” “I’m thrifty; you’re a bit tight; he’s cheap.” “I drive with the flow of traffic; you go over the speed limit; he’s reckless.”
Jesus knew our common propensity to justify self and blame others. As He concluded the section of His sermon dealing with the requirement of loving even our enemies, He knew that we would try to dodge its demands by judging our enemies and excusing ourselves. So He gives a strong corrective by showing how we should focus on showing mercy, not judgment, even toward those who have wronged us (6:36-38). Then, to help us apply it, He goes on to show that we must focus on judging our own sins or we will be like blind men trying to lead the blind (6:39-40). Only when we have judged our sins can we then see clearly to help another person with his sins (6:41-42). In fact, we must judge ourselves down to the heart level, because only a good heart can produce good fruit (6:42-43). Thus Jesus is teaching us that …
To love as we ought, we should focus on showing mercy toward others but (also) on judging our own sins.
Remember the question that I asked in our last study, a question I often ask those who come to me for counsel: Do you want God’s blessing in your life? The Bible states that God’s ways are not our ways (Isa. 55:8). If we want God’s blessing in our lives, we must go God’s way, which is usually counter to the ways of the natural man. Man’s way is to go easy on myself and to judge others more harshly than I judge myself. God’s way is to be merciful toward others and to judge my own sins. Since it goes against the flesh, it is something we must constantly work at if we want to please God and experience His blessing.
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (6:36). Only those who have personally tasted of God’s great mercy can show such mercy toward others. Everyone who has received God’s mercy knows himself as a sinner who deserves God’s judgment. If you do not view yourself that way, you do not understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is not that I was a pretty good person who needed a little something extra in my life, and God provided that something extra. The gospel is that I was hopelessly alienated from God, guilty of violating His holy law. I could do nothing in myself to be reconciled with God. No amount of good works would qualify me for heaven, because they could never cancel out my sins. I was dead in my sins, living according to the desires of the flesh, ignorant of God and His holy ways. Then,
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), … (Eph. 2:4-5).
That’s the great news of the gospel! When you have personally tasted God’s great mercy in Christ, you can begin to show that mercy to others who, like you, do not deserve it. Mercy, like grace, is God’s undeserved favor, but with the added nuance of His compassion because of our helpless condition. Often when someone has wronged us, we want God’s justice for him. We want him to pay for what he did. But what if God had shown us justice, not mercy? We would be paying for our sins in hell! If we know God as our merciful Father, then we must, as His children, show His mercy toward those who have wronged us. Jesus goes on to show us what this means:
To show mercy to others means not to judge them.
When Jesus commands us not to judge others, He does not mean that we should not evaluate others’ actions, beliefs, or teachings. This is often carried to ridiculous extremes in our tolerant culture. I once served on a jury with a woman who told us after hours of deliberation that she could never vote to convict the woman on trial, even though she was clearly guilty, because the Bible says, “Judge not, lest you be judged.” If people who think like that would read their Bibles, they would see that immediately after that command in Matthew 7:1, Jesus said, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine” (Matt. 7:6). Just a few verses later, He warned about “false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt. 7:15). In order to obey these commands, we must make some judgments: “This person is a dog or swine; this guy is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Neither did Jesus mean by not judging that as a church and as individual Christians we should overlook or tolerate serious sin or doctrinal error in other professing believers. Both Jesus (Matt. 18:15-17) and Paul (1 Cor. 5:9-13) made it clear that we must confront a sinning Christian and, if he does not repent, eventually we must put him out of the church. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their wrong behavior and teaching (Matt. 23). Paul condemned the Judaizers for adding works to the gospel of grace (Gal. 1:8, 9). John, the apostle of love, exposed and condemned those who denied apostolic teaching and told the believers not even to receive such people into their house or give them a greeting (1 John 2:18-26; 2 John 10, 11). None of these men violated Jesus’ command not to pass judgment. We must be discerning people.
So, what does Jesus mean by “do not pass judgment”? He further explains it by “do not condemn.” To judge others is to look down on them with a condemning spirit, presuming that we know their heart motives. It stems from a self-righteous spirit on our part. To judge someone stems from a desire to get even or to make the person pay for what he did. We don’t want God to pardon him; we want God to zap him! We would be gratified to hear that the guy got into major trials: “It serves him right after what he did to me!” If we heard that he repented and God saved him, we would think, “That’s not fair!” All of this reflects a spirit of judgment on our part, not a spirit of mercy.
Jesus illustrates a judgmental spirit in His story of the Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:11-14). The Pharisee prayed, “God, I thank You that I am not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.” He was self-righteous and proud, looking down on others as being not as good as himself. But a non-judgmental person is humble. He sees himself as a sinner, no better than any other sinner. This proper view of himself frees him to show mercy, not judgment, to fellow sinners.
To show mercy to others means to pardon them.
To pardon a sinner is to release him from the guilt and penalty of his sin. Christians know that God has forgiven them much; thus they must forgive others much. Jesus illustrated this in the parable He told about the two slaves who owed a king different amounts of money (Matt. 18:23-35). The first slave owed the equivalent of $10 million. His wife, children, and all that he had would have to be sold in order to settle the debt. When he entreated the king to be patient with him, the king was moved with compassion and forgave the whole debt.
But then that slave went out and grabbed a fellow slave who owed him a few thousand dollars (a hundred days’ wages). It was not a small amount, but neither did it compare to the debt he had owed the king. The forgiven slave demanded that his fellow slave pay back every cent, and he would not show him mercy. He had him thrown into prison. When the king heard of how he had treated his fellow slave, he threw the first slave into prison and demanded that he repay everything he owed him. Then Jesus applied it, “So shall My heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart” (Matt. 18:35).
Pardoning those who have sinned against us is not optional! We should not extend forgiveness verbally to the one who wronged us until he repents, since God does not grant forgiveness to sinners until they repent. But we must forgive the person in our hearts and be ready to forgive the instant he repents, just as God is ready to pardon every sinner who turns to Him in repentance. An unforgiving spirit is a judgmental spirit, opposed to God’s mercy.
To show mercy to others means to be generous toward them.
Verse 38 is often taken out of context by fund-raising preachers who use it to promise, “If you give to this ministry, God will give you back more.” While it’s true that God will bless generous givers, it is not true that He will give them back more than they give. In its context this verse means that even if we have been burned by people we have helped, we must continue to be generous to those in need, just as God generously showered His mercy on us.
The description “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap” comes from the grain markets of that day. A good merchant would pour grain into his measure. Then he would press it down and shake it so that it would settle. Then he would pour in more grain until it ran over. He would take that overflowing measure and pour it into the lap of your robe, which could be pulled up to serve as a big pocket. That’s how God poured out His generous mercy on us! That’s how we should respond to needy people. To show mercy to others means not to judge them, to pardon them, and to be generous toward them. Children of the merciful heavenly Father should be marked by such mercy, even toward those who have wronged us.
If we do not judge others, we will not be judged. If we pardon, we will be pardoned. If we are generous, we will be treated generously. Does our Lord mean that people will treat us that way? Or, does He mean that God will treat us that way? I take it to mean both. On the human plane, the statements are proverbial in the sense that they are generally true, not absolutely true in every case. It is generally true that if you are a merciful person, not condemning others for their faults, others will be gracious toward you. If you are quick to forgive, others will be prone to forgive you. If you are generous, others will be generous toward you. On the other hand, if you condemn people, if you refuse to forgive, if you are stingy, it will come back to you.
This is illustrated by an incident in the childhood of Louis Mayer, the founder of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio. He had a fight with another boy and lost. While his mother was bathing his black eye, he told her how the fight was entirely the other boy’s fault. His mother said nothing, but after dressing his eye, she took Louis to the back door of their home. Nearby were several hills that created a fine echo. She told him to call those hills all the bad names he could think of. He did so and the bad names all came back to him. “Now,” she said, “call out, ‘God bless you.’” He did so and back came “God bless you.” Mayer said he never forgot that lesson. How you treat others comes back to you.
But Jesus’ words also apply to God’s treatment of us, both now (through other people, as just mentioned) and in the future judgment when we stand before Him. If we truly are in Christ through faith in His shed blood, there is no eternal condemnation (Rom. 8:1). But our deeds will be judged and those that are wood, hay, and stubble will be burned and we will suffer loss. We will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Cor. 3:15; 2 Cor. 5:10). The Bible says that God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5). As we’ve seen, a judgmental person who refuses to forgive others is self-righteous and proud. We put ourselves in opposition to God if we condemn and refuse to forgive those who have wronged us. If we persist in our stubborn refusal to obey the merciful Father, it may reveal that He is not our Father, in which case we are under His judgment and wrath.
General Oglethorpe once said to John Wesley, “I never forgive and I never forget.” Wesley replied, “Then, sir, I hope you never sin.” If we are sinners who need mercy, we must show God’s mercy to those who have wronged us. Jesus goes on to show us that rather than judging others, our focus should be on judging ourselves:
Some commentators struggle with the flow of thought here, but I think there is a logical flow. Jesus was speaking primarily to His disciples, whom He was training to be leaders. Rather than judging others (6:36-38), they must judge themselves or they will be like blind guides of the blind, whose followers would be just like them (6:39-40). Thus they must take the log out of their own eye before they try to help others with the speck in their eye (6:41-42). As they examine themselves, they should look at their fruit (6:43-45). If their words are judgmental, bitter, and evil, it indicates that their hearts are evil. But if they are merciful, forgiving, and generous, it indicates that God has truly done a work of grace in their hearts. That is the flow of thought here.
Jesus is pushing His disciples to examine themselves. If they are blind to their own sins, how can they help others deal with their sins? Although Luke does not mention it here, the backdrop for Jesus’ illustration was the Pharisees, whom He called blind guides of the blind (Matt. 15:14; 23:16, 24). These men were marked by spiritual pride. They did not confront their own sins and acknowledge their constant need of God’s grace. If the disciples followed them, they would become like them, falling into the pit of self-righteousness. But if they will follow the merciful Lord Jesus, they will become like Him. It’s a warning to be careful to follow spiritual leaders who confront their own sins and to avoid leaders who are self-righteous. If we want God to use us to disciple others, …
Note that Jesus does not say that we should not help a brother with the speck in his eye, but rather, we should first take the log out of our own eye so that we can see clearly to help him with his speck. The word for “log” refers to the main supporting beam of a house. Your fellow worker has a speck of sawdust in his eye that he needs help removing. But how ridiculous for you to try to help when you have a beam in your own eye!
Jesus is humorously pointing out how prone we all are to focus on and exaggerate the faults of others but to minimize or even ignore our own glaring faults. We’re quick to blame others, but we’re slow to blame ourselves. If someone else is late for an appointment with me, I think, “How inconsiderate! Doesn’t he know that I’m busy?” But if I’m late for an appointment, I think, “He’ll just have to realize that I’m a busy man. I couldn’t help being late.” If I’m in a hurry, I ride the tail of the guy in front of me, muttering, “Step on it! I don’t have all day!” But if a guy is riding my tail, I say, “Back off! What’s the big rush, man?”
I see this often when I counsel couples with marriage problems. I ask her what their main problem is and she says, “I have my faults, but I could be a good wife if my husband wasn’t so inconsiderate and selfish!” And off she goes! Then I ask him what the problem is and he says, “I’m not perfect, but that woman is impossible to please!” Off he goes listing all of her faults.
But you won’t begin to love the other person as you should and you won’t grow spiritually until you begin to confront your own sins with God’s Word. The Word is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, exposing us before God’s holy standards (Heb. 4:12-13). Have you ever been working outside until dark? You thought you were not very dirty. Then you went into the bathroom, flipped on the light, and looked in the mirror. The light and the mirror showed you that you were filthy! God’s Word is like that. You think you’re a pretty loving person until you read Luke 6:27-38 or 1 Corinthians 13! Then you realize that you’ve got a lot of growing to do. If you want to please God by loving others as you should, you must be in God’s Word, applying it to your heart, not to the heart of the person that you’re having difficulty with.
Once God’s Word helps you get the log out of your eye, you will be much more compassionate in helping a brother with his speck. You’ll say, “Brother, I sympathize with you, because I used to have far more than a speck in my eye. Let me share how God can help you get your speck out.” Rather than being proud, you will be humble. Rather than being judgmental, you will be merciful. Rather than being insensitive, you’ll be understanding.
Then Jesus gives another illustration to show that we must examine the fruit that comes from our lives. Such fruit reveals our hearts, because we produce according to what we are. Our words reveal what fills our hearts.
Jesus’ point is obvious: A tree produces after its nature. The fruit primarily refers to our words which reveal that which fills our hearts (6:45). What is inside comes out of our mouths. If you are often spewing out angry, bitter words that tear down others, that blame them for all your problems, then your heart is not right before God. Jesus is not teaching here that some people are inherently good, while others are not. The only way you can get a good heart is to be born again through the power of God’s Spirit. Once you are born again, it is not automatic to live by the new man or heart. There will be a struggle between the old and the new. But those who truly have tasted the Father’s mercy will strive to put off the old man and put on the new. They will seek to please God, beginning on the thought level. As those who have received mercy, they will focus on showing God’s mercy toward others.
Note that the good man has a good treasure or storehouse in his heart (6:45). Where does this come from? It comes from meditating often on God’s great mercy in Christ toward you. As Paul said, “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20). Let God’s great mercy fill your thoughts and you will have a storehouse of mercy to serve to others.
Ask yourself these questions: Am I marked more by a merciful spirit or by a critical, judgmental spirit? Am I blaming God or others for my problems, or am I working on removing the log in my own eye? Am I frequently judging my own life, down to the thought level, by God’s Word? Am I truly born again? Is pleasing Christ the focus of my life? To love others, especially those who have wronged us, as Jesus commands, we must focus on showing mercy to others, but on judging our own sins.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
A widespread false teaching in the evangelical church today is that you can accept Jesus as your Savior, but that obeying Him as Lord of your life is optional. Those who promote this teaching mistakenly think that they are preserving the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, apart from human works. They do not deny the importance of submitting to Christ as Lord, but they do insist that it has nothing to do with saving faith. And so they teach that it is possible for a person truly to believe in Christ as Savior even though he never submits to Him as Lord.
I believe that this teaching rests on a mistaken notion of the nature of saving faith and that it gives false assurance to many who think they are Christians, but are not truly saved. Scripture is clear that without holiness, no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). Genuine saving faith always results in a life of progressive godliness. If a person claims to be saved, but has no hunger for God’s Word, no growing hatred of sin, and no growth in godly living, he needs to examine whether he is truly in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5).
As Jesus comes to the end of a sermon in which He has said some difficult things, He drives home the necessity of obeying what He has taught. He asks pointedly, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Then He concludes with His familiar parable of two men building separate houses. The first lays a foundation on the rock, so that his house stands firm when the flood bursts against it. The second foolishly builds his house without the proper foundation, so that it is destroyed by the flood. In the parable, the foundation is obedience to Christ’s teaching. The man who did not build on the foundation heard Jesus’ teaching. He agreed with it superficially, as seen by the fact that he calls Jesus “Lord.” But he did not obey Jesus’ teaching, resulting in tragic loss. Thus Jesus is showing us that …
Obedience to Christ is not optional because it is at the very foundation of the Christian life.
Some may say, “Now, wait a minute! I thought that faith, not obedience, is the foundation of the Christian life.” After all, we are saved by grace through faith apart from works (Eph. 2:8, 9). The one who believes in Jesus has eternal life (John 3:16). So how can you say that obedience is foundational?
The answer centers on the nature of saving faith. Saving faith inevitably and necessarily results in a life of holiness and good deeds. Many who quote Ephesians 2:8-9, that we are saved by grace through faith, not as a result of works, fail to go on to quote verse 10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Those who quote John 3:16 fail to go on to John 3:36, which states, “He who believes the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Many other New Testament verses virtually equate saving faith with obedience and unbelief with disobedience, because the connection is inseparable (see Acts 5:32; 6:7; Rom. 1:5; 2:4-10; 6:16; 10:16, 21; 15:18; 16:19, 26; 2 Thess. 1:8; Heb. 3:18, 19; 5:9; 11:8, 31; 1 Pet. 1:2, 22; 2:8; 4:17). As we saw in our last study, the nature of the tree determines the type of fruit. If a person has received a new nature through faith in Christ, that new nature will bear good fruit. We are saved by grace through faith apart from works, but the faith that saves always results in good works.
Also, at the outset we must be clear that Jesus was not teaching that His followers can be sinlessly perfect in this life. If the requirement of getting into heaven is perfectly obeying all that Jesus taught, no one will be in heaven. Not even the most devoted Christian loves God all the time with every fiber of his being. No one perfectly loves his neighbor as himself. The apostle John tells us, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Thus Jesus is not teaching that we must achieve sinless perfection in order to enter His kingdom. Rather, He is teaching what James later underscored in his epistle, that faith without works is dead (James 2:17, 26). Genuine faith is not simply intellectual assent. Genuine faith submits to the lordship of Jesus, resulting in a life of progressive holiness.
Jesus here shows three reasons why obedience to Him as Lord is not optional: first, because it is the true test of professing Christ (6:46); second, because it is the foundation that will withstand the tests of time and eternity (6:47-48); and, third, because those who do not obey Christ face sudden and final destruction (6:49).
If we call Him our Lord, we prove it by doing what He tells us to do in His Word. Note that Jesus unequivocally asserts His rightful position as Lord. He does not say, “Don’t call me Lord. Only God is Lord.” Rather, He assumes that He has the rightful authority to be Lord. His lordship governs all of life, down to our very thoughts. Thus obedience to Jesus as Lord is not just an option for some who want to be more committed. It is part and parcel of the Christian life. Those who do not submit to the lordship of Jesus have good cause to question whether they are truly Christians.
Implicit in Jesus’ words is the fact that there is the real danger of a false profession of allegiance to Christ. In the parallel in Matthew 7:21, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” He goes on to cite examples of those who even have done impressive things in His name, but who will be rejected at the gate of heaven because they also practiced lawlessness. Outwardly these men would have seemed to others to be righteous, but God tests the hearts. God knew their selfish motives, their lustful thoughts, and their greedy desires. So even though they had prophesied, performed miracles, and cast out demons in Jesus’ name, they were turned away from heaven. Outward obedience is not enough; God demands that we judge our evil thoughts and attitudes, bringing every thought into submission to Christ. If we name Jesus as Lord, we must enthrone Him as Lord of all our lives, even down to the thought level.
We will miss the thrust of Jesus’ words here if we do not recognize that He is giving us a strong warning. His warning implies the danger of deception. This is a matter where we could be faked out. These men who did all these things in His name are shocked when Jesus tells them that He never knew them and commands them to depart from His presence. Further, He is addressing His warning to those who call Him “Lord,” not to those who do not. If you asked these folks, “Are you a Christian, a follower of Jesus?” they would have responded, “Oh, yes! Amen! Jesus is Lord!” But, they were sadly deceived. Not only did these folks call Jesus “Lord,” they called Him Lord with feeling and with emphasis. That is the implication of the double vocative, “Lord, Lord.” They didn’t lower their voices and mumble when they said it. They would have strongly asserted that Jesus was their Lord. And yet, as Jesus’ parable goes on to show, they were heading for major destruction because their profession was superficial and false.
Thus Jesus’ warning is addressed to most of us. Most of us here would say, “Yes, I’m a Christian. Jesus is my Lord and Savior.” But Jesus is saying, “Examine your heart! Do you really seek to obey Me, beginning on the thought level? Do you judge your sin in the light of My Word? Or, could you be fooling yourself? Are you excusing your disobedience by claiming to be under grace? Are you justifying yourself by thinking, ‘Everyone does this’?” Obedience to Jesus on the heart level is not optional, just for the super-committed. It is the true test of whether your faith in Christ is genuine or counterfeit.
Jesus goes on to show by His parable of the two house-builders further reasons why obedience is not optional. First He shows us the necessity of obedience by a positive example, and then by a negative one. He ends His sermon abruptly with the negative example, leaving us to think about the tragic scene of a house destroyed by the flood.
The first home-builder represents the man who not only hears, but acts upon, Jesus’ words. He goes to the trouble of digging deep into the soil until he hits bedrock. He anchors his foundation to the bedrock, so that his house rests on a solid foundation. When the storm hit and the flash flood burst against that house, it stood firm because it was well built.
The house represents our lives. We’re all building a house. The question is, are we building our lives on the sure foundation of obedience to Jesus or are we building it on the sand of empty profession? To build a house involves a lot of time and expense. It’s not like throwing up a shed, where you don’t plan to spend much time inside and it isn’t expected to last. In a new home, you can install the finest hardwood cabinets. You can spend extra money on brass doorknobs and crystal chandeliers. You can put in a custom masonry fireplace. But if the house is not resting on a solid foundation, you’re throwing your money away. If you build the house of your life without obedience to Jesus on the heart level, it’s like wasting your money on a house without a foundation.
When you build a house you can be sure, no matter where you build it, that storms will come to test your foundation. The geography and climate of Palestine is much like that of Arizona, subject to sudden flash floods. Dry streambeds can quickly turn into raging torrents that sweep away almost everything in their paths. If you’re building your home near such a streambed, you had better make sure that it has a solid foundation.
The flood refers both to the trials of this life as well as to the flood of future judgment when we all must stand before God. The context in Matthew emphasizes more the future judgment, while Luke focuses more on the trials of life. But neither passage refers exclusively to one or the other. The person who has built his life on obedience to Jesus Christ has a solid foundation that will carry him through both the floods of this life and the future judgment. The person who professes to know Christ, but who is not walking in obedience, will be wiped out when trials hit in this life. And, he will be totally ruined when he stands before God at the judgment. There are only two final results: the one house stands, while the other house falls. There is no middle possibility of sustaining just a bit of damage. This points to the fact that there are two and only two final destinies, heaven and hell. Those who truly believe in Jesus as revealed by their obedience to Him will be in heaven. Those who profess to believe in Jesus but deny Him by their disobedient life will go to hell (Titus 1:16).
Before the flood, both houses would look the same to the casual observer, but there was a vast difference between them after the flood hit. One stood firm, the other was a shambles. The difference was in the hidden part, the foundation. Foundations aren’t very glamorous, but they are absolutely essential if you want a building to stand over the long haul. The foundation of obedience enables a Christian to stand firm when trials hit.
What are some of those inevitable floods that test our faith? There are the trials that we all face—disappointments, setbacks, sickness, loss of loved ones, the loss of a job, being let down by family members or friends, etc. There are the certain floods that go along with growing older—the loss of health and strength, being confined by the limitations of our bodies. And, of course, there is the steady, relentless approach of our own death. All these trials test whether we are true disciples of Jesus Christ or just fair-weather followers who were not sincere in our faith.
Further, there are the floods of temptation that come at us from the world, the flesh, and the devil. This evil world, under the dominion of Satan, presses on us relentlessly, often in subtle ways we are not aware of. It may be an enticement to cheat on an exam in school, to steal, to indulge in immorality, to set our minds on the fleeting pleasures of riches. When those blue-collar workers recently won the world’s largest lottery jackpot, most of us were tempted by the greedy thought, “What would I do if I won all that money?” Some may have yielded to the temptation of buying a lottery ticket, hoping to strike it rich. Few of us thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to win all that money so that I could give it all to the Lord’s work!”
The point is, if you’re not establishing the habit of obedience to Jesus every day, taking every thought captive to Him, confessing and forsaking all known sin, you are building your life on sand. When these inevitable temptations come, they will sweep away any profession of faith that you have made.
Of course, the final trial we all must face is to die and stand before God. He knows everything about us (Heb. 4:13). If we have been hypocrites, putting up a good front before others, claiming to be Christians, but all the while living in disobedience, it will all come crashing down in the flood of God’s judgment. The Bible is abundantly clear that that day is both certain and final. Everyone will be called to account before God’s throne. Those who may have fooled everyone on earth will not fool God in heaven. Only those who have lived in obedience to God’s Word, constantly examining themselves by it, judging their sin, seeking to be pleasing to God, will stand. Those who have said, “Lord, Lord,” but who have not sought to obey Him, will be ruined finally and forever.
That leads to the final reason Jesus gives that obedience is not optional. It is not optional because it is the true test of professing Christ; it is not optional because it is the only foundation that will withstand the tests of time and eternity.
As you consider the man who built his house without a foundation, you have to ask, “Why would he do such a dumb thing?” There could be several reasons. First, it involved a lot of time and hard work to dig by hand down to the bedrock and the foolish man was lazy. It was much easier to throw up the house without all the hassle of putting in a proper foundation. So he followed the path of least resistance. If you’ve ever done home improvement projects, you’ve come across situations where the previous owner “fixed” a problem by doing it the easy way, but it wasn’t right. In the long run it would have been better to do it right in the first place, because you have to tear apart his botched up easy fix in order to really fix the problem.
There’s a spiritual parallel. Disobedience is usually much easier than obedience, and it seems at the time like it will get you where you want to go more quickly than the more difficult path of obedience. The guy who threw up his house without a foundation was sitting inside sipping lemonade while his neighbor was out in the hot sun dripping with sweat as he dug his foundation. You young men see a guy who is living with his beautiful girl friend, enjoying all the pleasures of sex with seemingly no consequences. Meanwhile, you’re in the trenches battling for moral purity in obedience to Jesus, and you wonder, “Why am I digging this foundation while that guy sits in his comfortable house with his girl friend on his lap?” Wait till the flood hits and you’ll know the reason!
Another reason the guy didn’t bother to dig a proper foundation is that he wanted the immediate benefits of the house without the necessary labor and time to build it correctly. He had a roof over his head and all his furniture nicely arranged while his neighbor wasn’t even above ground yet. Spiritually, a lot of people come to Jesus for the benefits He offers. Seemingly, they’re instantly enjoying the blessings of salvation even though they have never repented of sin and they are not daily judging their sin by His Word. They enjoy the good feelings of singing praise songs and swaying with the music. They like the love and fellowship of the body. But in their private lives, they are not digging the foundation of obedience to God’s Word. The flood will hit and their spiritual house will come crashing down.
A third reason this guy didn’t bother to put in a foundation is that he was short-sighted. He was living for the here and now, without thought for the future. It wasn’t raining when he threw up his house. The riverbed was dry. Flood? What flood? A flood was not in his thinking. He just wanted to get inside his new house and enjoy the comforts it provided. Spiritually, we are fools if we do not live in light of death and the judgment to follow. This very day your soul may be required of you, and then where will you be? If you profess to be a Christian, but you’ve been living all these years for self, with no regard for furthering the kingdom of God, your life is built on sand. It will collapse when the flood of God’s judgment hits.
When you peel away the outside, so many professing Christians, even many who are engaged in ministry, are just living for self. What motivates their Christian service is not the glory of the Savior who gave Himself for them. They’re not doing what they do because they love the Lord Jesus. They’re motivated by the strokes they get from serving. They love the affirmation. But if their service goes unrecognized or someone else gets the credit, they get angry and quit. Their motive was to please self, not to please the Lord. They were not laboring with a view to the future judgment when they would hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
What can we do to make sure that our house is built on the rock of obedience to Christ, not on the sand? Jesus mentions three things (6:47): Come to Him, hear His words, and act on them.
First, you must come to Jesus. This implies a personal, one-to-one relationship between Jesus and you. In the parallel passage in Matthew, Jesus says to the hypocrites who had done all their impressive works in His name, “I never knew you” (Matt. 7:23). Do you know Jesus and does Jesus know you? Christianity is not a system of rules where you decide you will start working on the list. It is fundamentally a personal relationship with the risen, living Savior. Your sins have separated you from Him. But He shed His blood to reconcile to God every sinner who will stop trusting in himself and his own good deeds and who will trust in Jesus’ blood as the only satisfaction for sin.
Second, you must hear Jesus’ words. This implies growing in your knowledge and understanding of His teaching as revealed in the Bible. If you are not feeding daily on God’s Word, learning from it how He wants you to live, you are living according to the desires of the flesh. You are being squeezed into the world’s mold. The teaching of the Bible centers on two main subjects: how to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul; and, how to love your neighbor as you do in fact love yourself. In other words, the Bible shows us how to relate properly to God and to others. As you read and study your Bible, your aim should not be simply to fill your head with knowledge, although proper knowledge is essential. The bottom line for biblical knowledge is that you will please God by loving Him and loving others as He commands.
Third, Jesus says that you must act upon His words. This implies soul-searching obedience, down to our very thoughts, motives, and attitudes. It means continually examining ourselves in light of Scripture. When you read a psalm that says, “Praise the Lord and sing for joy,” you ask yourself, “Is my mind filled with praise to God and joy in Him, or am I marked by grumbling and complaining?” You apply Scripture to your life. The bottom line of our time in His Word should be, “How then should I live?”
The forecast is that there is a 100 percent chance of a flood hitting your life in the near future. In light of that forecast, now is the time to check your foundation. If you are living in daily obedience to Jesus on the heart level, your house will stand. If you call Him “Lord” but you are living for self, you had better start digging!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
All of us who know Christ have loved ones and friends who desperately need to know Him too. We all would like to see God use us to help reach these and others with the gospel. There is perhaps nothing more thrilling than when God uses you to bring another person in touch with His saving power. Every Christian wants to become a more effective servant of Jesus Christ in reaching others with the gospel.
If I were considering a man for a staff position at the church and he presented a letter of commendation from a respected Christian leader, it would be a strong point in his favor. But if the Lord Jesus Himself commended the man, I would do well to take note. He will be an effective servant of Christ and I can learn much from his faith.
Only twice in the gospels does Christ commend a person for great faith—the Syrophoenician woman (Matt. 15:28), and this centurion we meet in our text. Both are Gentiles; one is a woman, the other a man. It is as if the Lord is saying, “The way of faith is open to people of all nationalities, male or female.” The faith that pleases God is not an exclusive thing reserved for the religious crowd. Any and all can lay hold of God by faith.
This centurion is a model of effective Christian service. Though he was a man in authority over 100 soldiers, he became a servant to his own servant by calling Jesus to heal him. As such, he is a picture of serving the Lord Jesus by reaching out to those in need, who may be lowly and despised by others. He was the channel through which Christ’s power flowed to this dying boy.
Although the centurion was in the military, which is not known as a seedbed for piety, he had great faith. It is interesting that every centurion mentioned in the New Testament is presented in a favorable light. This man shows us that we can serve Christ in any “secular” job. The centurion lived in Capernaum, which Jesus later castigated for its lack of faith (Luke 10:15), but he was not affected by their unbelief. This shows us that we can be godly people in the midst of an evil, unbelieving world. Wherever you are and whatever you do, this centurion shows you how to be an effective servant of Christ. He possesses three qualifications that every servant of Jesus Christ must seek to develop in his or her life:
An effective servant of Christ needs an exalted view of Jesus, a lowly view of himself, and a caring view of others.
*He is Lord—the One in Authority. Therefore, the effective servant will have faith in Christ’s sovereign authority.
The centurion had an exalted view of the Lord Jesus Christ and of His authority over this hopeless disease: “... just say the word, and my servant will be healed” (7:7). The centurion understood the principle of authority. He knew what it meant to speak and to have his words obeyed.
But he knew that his servant’s desperate condition was beyond the realm of his authority. He needed to go to the One in authority over all creation. He recognizes Jesus to be that One. He even knew that Jesus did not need to come and physically lay hands on his servant. The Lord of Creation, who spoke the universe into existence, simply had to speak the word and his servant would be healed. That is an exalted view of Jesus Christ!
Note that the Lord Jesus accepts and even praises this man’s exalted view of Himself. Alexander Maclaren wrote, “Christ takes as His due all the honour, love, and trust, which any man can give Him—either an exorbitant appetite for adulation, or the manifestation of conscious divinity” (Expositions of Holy Scripture [Baker], on Matt. 8:8, 9, p. 383).
The miracles are pictures of spiritual truth. Christ’s power in healing this dying servant is a picture of His power to save those who are perishing in their sin. The message is clear: the power of salvation lies with the Savior, not with the sinner. All too often, I fear, we think, “I wish the Lord would save this person, but, after all, it’s up to the person’s free will.” But if salvation were up to the sinner’s free will, no one would be saved, because the sinner is spiritually dead. But if, as the Bible teaches, salvation is of the Lord, then we can pray in faith, “Lord, speak the word and impart new life to this sinner,” and know that He can do it. The effective servant believes in an exalted Lord who is mighty to save those who cannot do anything to save themselves.
Where did the centurion get this faith? Scripture teaches that faith is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8, 9); but also, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word concerning Christ” (Rom. 10:17). God imparts faith through the hearing of the Word about who Jesus is. We read (Luke 7:3), the centurion “heard about Jesus.” It is only a speculation, but I think that this centurion may have heard about Christ from the nobleman in Capernaum whose son Jesus healed (John 4:46-54). Both men were in government service. Jesus healed the nobleman’s son at a distance, which would have encouraged the centurion to believe that Jesus could do the same with his servant. At any rate, he heard of Christ and he believed. If we want to be more effective servants of Christ, we need to ask God to show us through His Word a more exalted view of the Lord Jesus. And, we need to direct others into the Word and pray that God will open their eyes to the glory of the exalted Savior.
Note verse 9, “not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” The word “found” implies that the Lord is looking for faith. We tend to think that God will use a person with unusual gifts, but even more important than giftedness, the Lord will use a person who simply trusts in Him. He is looking for men and women of faith.
Faith caused the Lord to marvel. Only two times in the gospels is it said that Jesus marveled: Here, and in Mark 6:6, at the unbelief of the people of this same city, Capernaum. Nothing gladdens the Lord more than when a person has faith in Him and His authority. And nothing saddens the Lord more than unbelief.
Dr. Robert Dick Wilson was a professor of Hebrew at Princeton Seminary in the early part of this century. He knew almost 40 languages! But he was not only a scholar; he was a man of faith. Once Wilson went to the seminary chapel to listen to his former student, Donald Grey Barnhouse, who returned to preach. Afterwards, he said to Barnhouse, “If you come back again, I will not come to hear you preach. I only come once. I am glad that you are a big-godder. When my boys come back, I come to see if they are big-godders or little-godders, and then I know what their ministry will be.”
Barnhouse asked him to explain. Wilson replied, “Well, some men have a little god and they are always in trouble with him. He can’t do any miracles. He can’t take care of the inspiration and transmission of the Scripture to us. He doesn’t intervene on behalf of His people. They have a little god and I call them little-godders. Then there are those who have a great God. He speaks and it is done. He commands and it stands fast. He knows how to show Himself strong on behalf of them that fear Him. You have a great God; and He will bless your ministry” (Barnhouse, Let Me Illustrate [Revell], pp. 132-133).
The Lord is looking for people like this centurion, “big-godders,” who know that Jesus Christ is Lord and who know how to come to Him in simple faith and say, “You say the word, Lord, and this will be done.” Charles Spurgeon said, “O preacher, if [you are] about to stand up to see what [you can] do, it will be [your] wisdom to sit down speedily; but if [you stand] up to prove what [your] almighty Lord and Master can do through [you], then infinite possibilities lie about [you]!” (The Soul Winner [Eerdmans], p. 165.)
Before we leave the subject of faith, and in light of Professor Wilson’s comment about big-godders believing that the Lord can take care of the inspiration and transmission of the Scripture, let me comment on the harmonistic problem between Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts of this story. Matthew 8:5-13 pictures the centurion going personally to Jesus, but Luke indicates that he did not even see Jesus, but appealed to Him through others. How do we reconcile these differences?
There are two opposing approaches. The rationalist assumes that either Matthew or Luke is in error. Probably Luke embellished the story. I contend that that is an arrogant approach that exalts human reason above the Bible and presumes that either God did not inspire Scripture or else that the God of truth inspired error.
The other approach does not abandon reason, but rather submits reason to the Word of God. Since “all Scripture is inspired by God,” and since God’s Word is truth (John 17:17), these accounts must be in harmony. We know that Matthew was an eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus, and that Luke composed his gospel after careful investigation of the facts (Luke 1:3). Thus it would be presumptuous for us, living almost 2,000 years later, to accuse either of these first century historians of error. The differences in their accounts show that they weren’t doctoring the story.
These accounts can be harmonized by recognizing that Matthew and Luke had different purposes in writing. Matthew wrote primarily for a Jewish audience, to explain why the Jews rejected the gospel and why it was open to the Gentiles. To make his point, as he often does, Matthew condenses the narrative. It would be extraneous to his purpose to go into the detail about the centurion approaching Jesus through messengers. Besides, it is true to say that what a man does through his agents, he does himself. We see this in the story itself: “he built our synagogue” (7:5). They do not mean that he personally did the work, but rather that he built it through workers. Thus Matthew eliminates unnecessary details to show that this Gentile centurion had faith in Jesus.
But Luke’s purpose was different. He was writing to a Gentile audience, most of whom had not seen Jesus. For him, the greater detail about this centurion who believed in Jesus, although he did not see Him, was quite to the point, so he included it. The two accounts do not contradict each other.
To return to our theme, an effective servant of Christ will have an exalted view of Christ—that He is Lord—and thus will have faith in His sovereign authority.
*I am unworthy: Humility. Therefore, the servant will have faith in God’s grace.
In verse 4, the Jewish delegation tells Jesus that this man is worthy, but in verses 6 and 7 the man says of himself that he is unworthy both for Christ to come under his roof and for him to come in person to Christ. Isn’t that the way it often is? The man whom the world views as worthy views himself as unworthy. He knows his own heart.
The man had reason for boasting. He was a man of great faith. He was a good man who loved the Jewish people. He was a generous man who had built the synagogue. He was a compassionate man toward his slave. He could have boasted in any of these things. He even could have boasted in his humility!
On one occasion the well-known preacher, Harry Ironside, felt that he was not humble enough. So he asked an older friend what he could do about it. The friend replied, “Make a sandwich board with the plan of salvation in Scripture on it and wear it as you walk through downtown Chicago for a day.”
Ironside followed his friend’s advice. It was a humiliating experience. As he returned home and took off the sandwich board, he caught himself thinking, “There’s not another person in Chicago who would be willing to do a thing like that!”
How do we grow in humility? True humility stems from seeing my insufficiency and Christ’s all-sufficiency. The centurion’s servant was about to die (7:2). He was helpless to deal with this irreversible illness and imminent death. What a picture of the human race, impotent to deal with the ravages of sin and its ultimate result, spiritual death! The centurion saw his own insufficiency to deal with the problem, but he also saw Christ’s all-sufficiency. So he said to Jesus, “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Luke 7:7). False humility says, “I can do nothing” and stops there. True humility adds, “But I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13) and cries out to Him to work.
It’s a lesson we keep learning all our lives. I often experience it in preparing messages. I come to a point where I cannot get the flow of the passage. The message isn’t gelling. And I’m under time constraints! I don’t have time for it not to come together! Then I realize afresh that I can’t put sermons together. I can’t adequately communicate God’s truth. Only He can. And so I call to Him out of my weakness, and He answers.
One of my spiritual heroes is George Muller, who trusted God to support over 2,000 orphans in Bristol, England, in the last century. His biographer observes, “Nothing is more marked in George Muller, to the very day of his death, than this, that he so looked to God and leaned on God that he felt himself to be nothing, and God everything” (A. T. Pierson, George Muller of Bristol [Revell], p. 112). That’s the proper focus of a servant of Christ.
That’s what grace is all about. I do not deserve God’s blessing. I am not worthy for Him to use me or to answer my prayers. But I don’t come to Him based on my worthiness. I come asking for His undeserved favor. This centurion didn’t approach the Lord based on his worthiness, even though others saw him as a worthy man. He saw himself as unworthy to come to Christ; but he also knew that Christ received sinners because of His grace. And so he approached the Lord on behalf of his slave.
To be effective servants of Christ, we need an exalted view of Jesus—He is Lord over all, powerful to save. We also need a lowly view of ourselves: “I am an unworthy servant. But God uses unworthy servants who trust in His grace. And so God can use me to bring His salvation to others.”
“*They are needy”: Compassion. Therefore the servant will have faith in Christ’s authority and grace towards others.
The centurion’s compassion is seen in his attitude toward this slave boy. Slaves in that day were commonly regarded as property to be used and discarded at the will of the owner. But the centurion “highly regarded” this slave. The Greek word means “precious”; it is used to refer to Christ as the cornerstone, precious in God’s sight (1 Pet. 2:4, 6). The centurion was a man of rank and power. He gave orders and they were obeyed. He easily could have said, “If this slave dies, we’ll have to get another one.” But the centurion’s position and power had not gone to his head. He had concern for this one whom society would normally have despised. And so he entreated Christ on behalf of his slave. And of course the Lord Jesus did not regard this slave as too unimportant to heal. Christ cares for every person, especially for the poor or despised in the eyes of the world.
My mother modeled this kind of compassion to me when I was a boy. She often exhorted me to be on the alert for kids at church or school who seemed to be excluded or on the fringe and to befriend them. She would say, “Think about how you would feel if you were them, and treat them as you would want to be treated.” I remember her coming in the house, with the car running outside, and telling us, “I’ll be home in a few minutes. I passed this woman walking down the road with a baby in her arms and three toddlers, carrying their groceries. I’m giving them a ride home.” Often she would go over to a state hospital near us and bring home a deranged old woman to eat Sunday dinner with us. She had whiskers growing on her chin, and she would drool and make strange noises while she ate. She would shake profuse amounts of salt and pepper on her food and then exclaim as she ate, “Peppy! Peppy!” But my mother showed her the kindness of Christ.
For years now my parents have shown the love of Christ to a mentally incompetent man who was living on the streets when they met him. They have spent hours helping him with personal and business affairs. They have fed him often at their table, even though he smells and he eats heaps of food. Their phone often rings with calls from other people whom you could rightly call strange or very different. I don’t know how many of these people will be in heaven someday, but any who are there will testify, “It was because the Cole’s cared for me when others rejected me.”
All too often, I tend to look at people from the human perspective and think, “This guy is hopeless. Why bother with him?” Or I look at somebody else and think, “This guy would make a great Christian!” But that’s not the Lord’s perspective. He can take the most unlikely people (from our point of view) and do great things with them to the glory of His grace.
As Paul reminded the Corinthians, “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God” (1 Cor. 1:26-29).
Years ago, when I was involved with Campus Crusade as a college student, we tended to be overly concerned about the image of the people who were in leadership in the campus ministry. The guys had to look “cool” in the way they dressed. We were looking for guys like athletes or fraternity men who could attract others to the ministry.
But God “blessed” us with two guys who didn’t fit the image. One guy would wear clothes that I can only describe as “out-of-it.” He wore slacks with belt loops, but no belt. He would wear white socks with black dress shoes. And he couldn’t help it, but he wore clunky looking glasses and had pimples all over his face. He just didn’t fit the image. And he insisted on being the greeter at our outreach meetings, where we were trying to impress the cool fraternity and sorority crowd!
The other guy was what we called a greaser. He slicked down his hair with thick grease. He wore black Levi’s, dark shirts, and black boots and he rode a motorcycle. And this was at Long Beach State, where the California surfer look was the “in” thing!
But those two guys had the most fruitful small groups of anyone. The first guy went on to serve as a pastor and now is a seminary professor. I’ve lost track of the other one. But God taught me that He chooses and uses people whom I would reject. God often saves the despised of the world and uses them as trophies of His grace. Effective servants care about such people.
The Lord is looking for servants like this centurion:
*Who have an exalted view of Christ—He is the sovereign Lord of authority, and thus they trust Him for the impossible.
*Who have a lowly view of themselves—they are unworthy and insufficient, but they know Christ as gracious and all-sufficient.
*Who have a caring view of others—they are helpless, and thus need compassion. Christ’s authority and grace extend to those whom society may despise.
Hudson Taylor, the great pioneer missionary to China, used to say, “All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them.” May that same powerful God do great things through us as we trust Him in our weakness!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
It is not news, and yet at the same time we hear each day in the news, that we live in a hurting world. In the past several weeks we have heard about bombings in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ireland. There is continuing tension in the Middle East and between India and Pakistan. There is civil war in the Congo, which just went through civil war in the past year. The list could go on and on.
Moving from the global to the personal realm does not eliminate the problems. We’ve all heard about the tragic domestic violence in our community in the last few years. We all know families that are breaking apart and parents who are heartbroken over their rebellious children. Many, even in Christian circles, struggle with severe personal problems. Nineteenth century British preacher Joseph Parker said, “Preach to the suffering, and you will never lack a congregation. There is a broken heart in every pew.”
In such a world, there is a desperate need for a message of true hope to overcome the despair and of real power to overcome our weakness. Sometimes we feel like the guy who saw some light at the end of the tunnel, but then he realized that it was a train coming at him. That is false hope! We need true hope.
The gospel of Jesus Christ offers that true hope and real power to this hurting world. This is graphically portrayed in Luke 7:11-17. There are three recorded miracles where Jesus raised a dead person back to life: Jairus’ daughter (in Matthew, Mark, and Luke); Lazarus (only in John); and the raising of this widow’s only son (only in Luke). All of Jesus’ miracles go beyond the literal fact in that there are great spiritual lessons to be learned from them. John referred to them as “signs,” meaning that they have significance beyond the outward. They point us to something deeper. Spurgeon said, “They are sermons to the eye just as His spoken discourses were sermons to the ear” (12 Sermons on Conversion [Baker], p. 80). Even so, this account of Jesus raising this young man to life and giving him back to his mother is saying something beyond the actual facts of the matter. It shows us that …
The life-giving word of Christ is a message of hope and power in a world of despair and weakness.
This woman who had lost her husband was now in despair over the loss of her only son. And, of course, she was powerless in the face of death. But Christ’s life-giving word brought hope and power into that dismal scene.
This miracle is a parable of the task we face as witnesses of the gospel. Evangelism is not the job of a salesman who persuades people to believe in Christ. Evangelism is nothing less than the raising of those who are dead in their trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). When we share the gospel with them, God must use it to raise the sinner from death to life just as Jesus raised this man from physical death to physical life. And the result is no less powerful.
Note how Luke paints the scene: Two large crowds converge. The one crowd was grieving and hopeless. Hired professional mourners would have been wailing loudly. The bereaved mother, wearing torn clothes, would have been walking, probably upon the arms of comforters, in front of the open stretcher bearing the shrouded corpse. It was a hopeless scene.
Enter the second crowd, coming from the opposite direction, following Jesus, the Messiah, who was performing great miracles. The lively chatter and the bright faces would have shown that this crowd had hope. What a sharp contrast between these two crowds! Wherever the Lord Jesus is absent, there is despair in the face of death. Wherever He is present, there is hope. The hope that Christ gives shines through in three ways:
The Lord felt compassion for her (7:13). The word literally is related to the word “bowels” and describes feelings that come from deep inside. In other words, it was not just an intellectual sympathy. Jesus felt deeply for this hurting woman.
Whenever the Lord Jesus confronts human sorrow and need, He feels compassion. He did then, when He was upon earth. He does now, as our sympathetic High Priest in the heavenlies. He is not a stoic Savior. That kind of compassion brings hope. In our despair, we are prone to feel like nobody understands. Our loneliness intensifies the despair. But to know that someone else feels with us brings a ray of hope. We are not alone! Jesus understands and cares!
Jesus’ words, “Do not weep,” would have been insensitive if He had not been able to do something about her problem. Christ never calls upon people to stop their tears when those tears are wholesome. But in this instance, He is lovingly calling upon this woman for a spark of trust in Himself. He is tenderly saying, “Look to Me! I can do something about the cause of your grief.”
If we want to be effective witnesses for Christ, then we must ask Him to deepen our compassion for the lost. It has truly been said that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. When we show people the compassion of Christ, it often opens their hearts to hear the truth of the gospel.
The hope that Christ gives shines through in a second way:
God’s unmerited favor gives us hope. This woman did nothing to merit this miracle. Unlike the centurion in the miracle just preceding (7:4), no one said to Jesus, “This woman is worthy for you to grant this to her.” She did not even ask the Lord to do it. There is no trace of faith or expectation on her part. And there was nothing in the dead young man to merit this miracle. Jesus didn’t say, “What a good looking corpse! I’ve never seen such a fine corpse! I’m going to raise him from the dead.” I don’t care how nicely you dress them up, corpses do not have any merit. This miracle came totally from Christ’s great compassion and love. It was all of grace.
The gospel is all of grace, not at all of works. It is not, “Try a little harder! Clean up your life! Do these good works so that you can receive God’s salvation.” That is the message of man’s religions, and it only increases despair, because the already despairing sinner thinks, “What if I can’t measure up?”
But the message of grace brings hope. It says, “Even when we were dead in our transgressions, [He] made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:5). God does not save anyone because they have worked hard to get their corpse in pretty good condition. When we were dead He made us alive so that “He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). Evangelism is the work of seeing Christ raise the dead. Since it is totally of His grace, it does not depend at all on what sinners do. Thus it brings hope to the hopeless.
Our text reveals the hope that comes through Christ’s compassion and through His grace. Also,
Christ performed His miracles in a variety of ways. It is significant, therefore, that each time He raised the dead, He did it the same way: by speaking to the dead person and calling him or her back to life. It was His bare word that quickened the dead.
There is great power in God’s word. He spoke the universe into existence through His word. The centurion said to Jesus, “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed” (7:7). We have in the Scriptures that same powerful Word, “living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). Isaiah 55:10-11 promises, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth, and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
The power of God’s Word gives us great hope, because it is able to bring change to our hopeless situations. Just as Christ spoke personally to this dead young man, so He speaks personally to the hearts of dead sinners today. Just as this young man who could not arise, because he was dead, did so instantly in response to Christ’s word, so now those who are dead in their sins can respond instantly and receive new life when the Lord speaks the gospel through His servants and through His written Word.
As witnesses, we need to direct people into the Word of God. If you want to see your children solidly converted, read the Word of God to them and when they are able, encourage them to read it on their own. As you talk to people about their need of Christ, quote Scripture and challenge them to read it for themselves.
Gaylord Kambarami was the General Secretary of the Bible Society of Zimbabwe. Once when he offered a man a New Testament, the man responded, “If you give me that Bible, I will roll the pages and use them to make cigarettes!” Gaylord replied, “At least promise me that you will read the page before you smoke it.” The man agreed, so he gave him the New Testament and went his way.
Fifteen years later, Gaylord was attending a convention when the speaker on the platform suddenly spotted him, pointed him out to the audience, and said, “This man doesn’t remember me, but 15 years ago he tried to sell me a New Testament. When I refused to buy it he gave it to me, even though I told him I would use the pages to roll cigarettes. He made me promise to read the pages before I smoked them. Well, I smoked Matthew and I smoked Mark and I smoked Luke. But when I got to John 3:16, I couldn’t smoke any more. My life was changed from that moment.” He had become a full-time evangelist, pointing others to the powerful message of God’s Word.
Thus in the gospel of Christ we have a word of hope for a despairing world. But hope is useless unless it can deliver the goods. An impotent hope is no hope at all, but only wishful thinking. Thus the importance of my second point:
Modern man boasts of his power, but he is impotent against that great leveler, death. Bertrand Russell called it “omnipotent death.” If you remove God from the picture, as Russell did, he is right, because no one can stand against it. Although Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Princess Diana had all the money they needed, they could not stave off death. None are exempt.
But Jesus is Lord over death. When He spoke His life-giving word, the corpse came alive, sat up, and began to speak. Even so today there are powerful effects when Christ speaks His life-giving word to the hearts of those dead in their sins. Note, first:
He was transformed from death to life! There is an unmistakable difference between a dead person and a live one. One summer during seminary, I worked as Charlie Chaplin at the Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park. The museum is filled with life-like wax figures of famous movie stars. But no matter how much those figures looked alive they were really dead—except for me, of course! I would pose in a frozen position as some unsuspecting person would approach. Sometimes another worker would tell them, “You can touch this one!” As they reached for me, I would reach out toward them, grab their hand and say, “Hello!” These people suddenly realized that there is a huge difference between a dead wax statue and a living person!
Even so, there is a great difference between religious people who are all dressed up with their good works to look alive and those who really have received spiritual life through the power of Christ. The former may fool some for a while, but if you look carefully you can tell that they do not have His life in them. Those truly born of God have many vital signs that reveal that He has given new life to them. We may not see it all at once, but we will see a difference. In this case, the dead man sat up and began to speak (7:15). We don’t know what he said, but those who have received the life of Christ normally will speak much of Him. They will have a new interest in the things of God. Spurgeon points out that whatever this man said, his mother did not criticize it. She did not say, “That sentence was ungrammatical.” She was too excited about the fact that he was alive. Sometimes new Christians say wrong things, but we must be careful not to criticize them too severely and instead rejoice in the signs of new life.
If we keep in mind the fact that evangelism involves raising spiritually dead people, we will avoid two dangers. First, we will not look at outwardly good people and assume that they do not need what we have to offer them in Christ. Look again! They are just lifeless corpses who need the life that only Christ can give. Salvation is always the act of God imparting life, never of man imitating life. Second, we will not despair that some cases are too hard for the Lord. Whether the corpse looks alive or looks dead, it is in fact dead, and it takes the power of God to impart life in either case.
“Jesus gave him back to his mother.” There was an emotional reunion of mother and son. Her tears of grief and sorrow were changed to tears of joy. The fellowship that had ended with his death was restored by his life. The help and support that her son had formerly given was now reinstated. It must have given the Lord Jesus great joy to present this young man alive to his mother.
One of the most powerful witnesses to the fact that a formerly dead sinner has received new life in Christ is that of restored family relationships. There is not so much a generation gap as there is a spiritual gap between young people and their parents. If both the parents and the young person truly have experienced new life in Christ, then there will be joy and fellowship where formerly there was anger and alienation.
I remember the first time I went to hear the Christian music group, “Love Song.” This was at the beginning of the “hippie” movement, when parents were shocked and angry with their kids for growing their hair long and wearing grungy clothes. Kids were alienated from their parents because of what they saw as hypocrisy. But at this concert, there was a long-haired, hippie-looking boy sitting there with his very straight-looking mom. It was obvious that he had become a Christian and had brought her to the concert. As Love Song gave the invitation to receive Jesus, the mom got up, went forward and knelt down. The boy went down, knelt beside her, and put his arm around her. It was a touching scene. Christ delights to give new life to sons and daughters and to parents and watch the joyful reunion. But the effects don’t stop there:
They feared and glorified God (7:16). While their estimate of Christ as a “great prophet” was not as high as it should have been, they nonetheless recognized the hand of God at work through Jesus: “God has visited His people” (Luke. 1:68).
Whenever Christ imparts new life to dead sinners, there will be powerful effects upon the observers. This is especially the case when the dead sinner really looked dead (when he wasn’t all dressed up in good works before). The genuine conversion of a drunkard or drug addict or immoral person or criminal can have a great impact for Jesus Christ. People cannot deny the transformation. They must acknowledge the reality of God. I would add in this connection that it is important for those who have been raised from the dead to live like it so that the name of Christ is not scoffed at through your poor testimony. It is a mistake to parade new believers in front of crowds before they have learned to walk in a manner pleasing to the Lord.
Perhaps as with Lazarus, some flocked to Nain to meet this young man who had been raised. The report went all over (7:17). It was a ripple effect, spreading ever wider.
Who can ever tell of the powerful effects of the conversion of one soul? The results may not be known for years and years, but they can be mighty. In the fall of 1934, a fiery Southern evangelist named Mordecai Ham, preached for eleven weeks in Charlotte, North Carolina. There a 16 year-old, outwardly religious but inwardly spiritually dead, boy came under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and received new life in Christ. Who can tell of the impact that that boy, Billy Graham, has had for the cause of Christ?
In 1929 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, the 17 year-old son of a steel worker became a Christian on his own through reading the Bible. For him, it was a transforming reality that changed his whole outlook, but he thought that he was alone in his experience. He knew no others who believed as he did. A year later, as he walked down the street, he came to a large tent. Wondering what was happening, he entered and heard an Italian-American man tell of his conversion out of crime and drugs and of how Christ not only freed him from prison, but from sin. When the invitation was given, the young man went forward. He entered in his diary that night, August 19, 1930, “have decided to give my whole life to Christ unconditionally.” That young man was Francis Schaeffer, whose writing, speaking, and films have had an untold world-wide impact for Christ.
You never know what can come from God imparting life to a single sinner through your witness! This should be a great motivation for us to take advantage of those seemingly “chance” encounters which we have with the spiritually dead. Jesus just “happened“ to walk into town at the moment this funeral procession was heading out. It was one of those divine appointments. Jesus was always ready, and so He raised this young man to life.
Even so, God gives us providential, but seemingly “chance” encounters with those who are dead in their sins. So often, I confess, I am spiritually dull and miss the opportunity. Later I think, “I could have said such and such!” If we would raise the dead as Jesus did, we must realize that we are always to be about our Father’s business, even as He was. The gospel is the life-giving word of Christ, a message of hope in a world of despair, a message of power in a world of weakness. Even through this sermon, the Lord may be saying to someone, “Arise from your spiritual death and sin and follow Me!”
At age twelve, Robert Louis Stevenson was looking out into the dark from his upstairs window watching a man light the street lanterns. Stevenson’s governess came into the room and asked what he was doing. He replied, “I am watching a man cut holes in the darkness.” That describes our job as witnesses—to cut holes in the darkness of this hopeless, hurting world with the good news that Jesus came to raise dead sinners to new life through His Word.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
At some time or another, every thinking person has wrestled with the problem of doubt. How can I be sure that Christianity is true? What if I have put all my hope in Christ, but I’m wrong? What if there is no heaven or hell? What if critics are right and the Bible is not the Word of God? Questions of this sort can nag at the heart of the most sincere believers.
Even unbelievers have their moments of doubt. C. S. Lewis, who was an atheist before he was saved, wrote (source unknown),
Just as the Christian has his moments when the clamor of this visible and audible world is so persistent, and the whisper of the spiritual world so faint that faith and reason can hardly stick to their guns, so, as I well remember, the atheist also has his moments of shuddering misgiving, of an all but irresistible suspicion that old tales may, after all, be true, that something or someone from outside may at any moment break into his neat, explicable, mechanical universe. Believe in God, and you will have to face hours when it seems obvious that this material world is the only reality; disbelieve in Him, and you must face hours when this material world seems to shout at you that it is not all. No conviction religious or irreligious will, of itself, end once and for all this fifth-columnist in the soul. Only the practice of faith resulting in the habit of faith will gradually do that.
We usually associate doubt with the infamous “Doubting Thomas,” but at first, all the apostles doubted the reports of Christ’s resurrection (Luke 24:11). In the text before us, even the great forerunner, John the Baptist, was struggling with doubt as he languished in Herod’s prison. Although some respectable commentators don’t attribute doubt to the great man, I do not agree. I think that in spite of the fact that John was a great man of God, he was wrestling here with doubt. Through his honest question, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for someone else?” and through Jesus’ reply to John’s disciples and His comments to the crowd, we can learn some things about dealing with our doubt.
These verses fall into three sub-units: John’s question and Jesus’ reply (7:18-23); Jesus’ commendation of John (7:24-28); and, a rebuke to Israel’s leaders for rejecting both John and Jesus in spite of their differences in style (7:29-35). Luke wants his readers to grapple with the question of Jesus’ true identity and with the response of faith His identity demands. Luke makes it plain that while many had repented and submitted to John’s baptism, most of the Jewish leaders had not responded rightly to John or to Jesus. Rather than follow in their footsteps, Luke wants his readers to think clearly about who Jesus is so that they come into a full assurance of faith in Him.
To understand this text and to deal properly with our own doubts, we must recognize that two kinds of doubters are portrayed here. In John we see the doubts of a godly man who was confused on account of the difficult circumstances he was in. He couldn’t reconcile his understanding of Messiah’s ministry with the fact that he, as Messiah’s messenger, was still in prison while the wicked Herod flourished. Quite distinct from John, the second group of doubters is represented by the Pharisees and experts in the Jewish law who did not want to face their own sin and rebellion. They were not just doubters; they were scoffers. They needed to submit their hearts to God. The overall principle is:
To deal with our doubts, we must submit our hearts to God’s revelation about Jesus Christ and hold to it in spite of our difficult circumstances.
The first principle of dealing with doubt is:
There is debate about whether verses 29 and 30 are Jesus’ words or Luke’s parenthetical explanation. They are probably Luke’s words, but either way doesn’t change the meaning. One group, made up mostly of common people including notorious sinners such as the tax collectors, acknowledged God’s justice in John’s preaching. In other words, when John thundered against their sin, in their hearts they said, “God is righteous and I am not. I am guilty before His holy throne.” So when John pointed the way to God’s forgiveness through repentance and baptism, these people readily responded.
But, the very people who knew the Scriptures and who should have welcomed John’s message and the Messiah to whom John pointed, did not. They rejected God’s purpose and refused to humble themselves to be baptized by this radical prophet. Their pride kept them from acknowledging themselves as sinners and from participating in an activity, such as baptism, where sinners admitted their need for cleansing. They thought, “We’re better than these no-goods. We know the Scriptures and they don’t. John’s baptism may be okay for them, but we don’t need it.” And so they missed God’s purpose through John’s ministry and they missed God’s Messiah whom John announced.
Jesus uses a parable to expose their root problem. Those who had rejected both John and Jesus were like children playing games in the market place. Jesus’ use of children for His illustration was a rebuke in itself, in that He is implying that these men who thought of themselves as too sophisticated for John’s crude style were, in reality, so immature that a children’s game refuted them. The picture is of one group of children saying, “Let’s play wedding and dance.” But their friends say, “No, we don’t want to play something happy.” So, the first group says, “All right, then let’s play funeral. We’ll play a dirge and be sad.” But the friends refuse to play this game as well. In other words, you can’t please them no matter what you do, because they don’t want to play unless they make up the game and the rules.
The point is that John came with an austere way of life, preaching God’s judgment, but the Pharisees didn’t like him. Then Jesus came along, enjoying normal food and drink, offering a message of God’s forgiveness to sinners, but the Pharisees didn’t like Him either. The problem was not in the message or in God’s messengers. The problem was in the proud, unrepentant hearts of these religious leaders. Verse 35 goes back to those who have submitted to God’s way (7:29). The thrust of it is, the ones who are truly wise will acknowledge God’s righteousness and their own need of repentance and will therefore submit to God’s messengers, but especially to Jesus who is the final revelation of God. They will not fall into the supposedly “wise” ways of the Pharisees and scribes, who refuse to submit to God.
Applied to our struggles with doubt, we all must ask, Is my heart truly subject to God’s revelation in Jesus Christ? Have I bowed before God’s righteous judgment regarding my sin? Have I repented of my sins? Have I laid hold of God’s provision of salvation in Jesus Christ? Have I publicly confessed my repentance and faith in Christ through baptism? Or, could my doubts merely be an excuse so that I can continue running my own life in my own way?
A few years ago a man who did not believe in Christ and his wife, who did believe, began attending the church I pastored in California. He had come for quite some time when his wife had to go into the hospital for surgery. I went to the hospital to wait with him while her surgery was under way. After we had talked about a number of things, I said to him, “Bruce, you’ve been coming to church for quite a while. Where are you at spiritually? Have you put your trust in Christ as your Savior yet?” He replied that he had not yet trusted in Christ. When I asked him why not, he said that he still had a lot of unanswered questions. I said, “Well, we’ve got some time right now. What are your questions?” He said, “I have a lot of them.” I said, “How about if you make a list of all your questions. If I can provide satisfactory answers to your questions, would you then become a Christian?”
He got a wry smile on his face, as if I had found him out. Then he said, “If I’ve been hearing you correctly, if I trust in Christ as my Savior, I’ve got to quit running my own life and let Jesus take over. Is that correct?” I said yes. He said, “Well, I’m not sure that I’m ready to do that yet.” He saw that the matter was not intellectual, but rather of yielding his will to God. A few months later, he did yield his life to Christ and I had the joy of baptizing him.
Doubt is often just a smokescreen for a heart that wants to play by its own rules. God has given sufficient evidence that Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be. If your doubts stem from sin and rebellion, you won’t see them removed until you repent and submit your heart to Jesus as Lord. So the first step for dealing with doubt is to turn from your sin and rebellion against God. Acknowledge that God, as the Sovereign Creator of this universe, has the right to run your life. Recognize that Jesus Christ offered Himself as the necessary sacrifice to satisfy God’s righteous judgment. Accept Christ as your Savior and Lord. Yielding your heart to Him will remove many doubts.
As I said, many weighty commentators refuse to attribute doubt to John, since he was such a great man of God. Jesus gives John the highest imaginable commendation (7:24-28). Unlike the reeds that swayed in the breeze along the Jordan River where he preached, John was a man of unswerving conviction. He didn’t change his message in the slightest when the big shots from Jerusalem came to hear him preach. Further, John’s convictions were backed up by his lifestyle. He wasn’t preaching so that he could wear the finest clothes and eat gourmet food. John was a prophet, and more than a prophet. He was the very messenger whom God promised in Malachi 3:1 to prepare the way before Messiah.
Because Jesus speaks so highly of John, many think that John’s question did not stem from his doubt, but was designed to shore up the doubts of his disciples. In spite of John’s greatness, I reject that interpretation for two reasons. First, Jesus’ gentle rebuke in verse 23 seems to be a word to John, not to his disciples. Note, by the way, that Jesus sent this rebuke directly back to John, probably without the multitude hearing. Then He praises John to the multitude. We often err by praising a man to his face and running him down to others behind his back. Jesus’ gentle rebuke says, “John, I’m the one; just don’t stumble over Me because I’m not doing things the way you may have expected.”
The second reason I think that John was doubting is that even the greatest men of God are still men of flesh, subject to times of doubt and despair. The mighty prophet Elijah wavered in his faith and ran from the wicked Jezebel, whose prophets he had slain, asking God to take his life. Ironically, he was one of two men who did not ever die, but were taken straight to heaven! Now, the “Elijah who was to come” wavers as he sits day after day in Herod’s prison. Why did John doubt?
It’s interesting to contrast the Elijah of old with John, who came in the spirit and power of Elijah. The Old Testament prophet saw God work many powerful miracles. In his duel with the prophets of Baal, he called down fire from heaven to consume his saturated sacrifice and then he took up a sword and slew all 400 of them. Later, when the wicked son of Ahab and Jezebel sent a contingent of 50 soldiers to take him captive, he called down fire from heaven and consumed them. When a second group of 50 came, he did it again. Yet John the Baptist had performed no miracles. When the wicked Herod decided to imprison him, he didn’t call down fire from heaven to consume the arresting soldiers. His prayers and the prayers of his disciples on his behalf to get him out of prison weren’t even being answered. John sat in that dark dungeon day after day, he ate the meager diet of bread and water, and he wondered, “If Jesus is the Messiah, then why am I still in prison?”
Whenever you’re going through a time of difficult trials, when it seems that God is ignoring your prayers, be on guard. It was in the context of enduring fiery trials that Peter wrote, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Then he added, “But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you” (1 Pet. 5:8-10, italics added). Your trials do not mean that God does not exist or that He has lost control as the Sovereign of the universe. Hang on by faith, knowing that He will use your trial to strengthen and establish you. As Peter instructs just a few verses before (5:6-7), “Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God … casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.” Don’t doubt God’s sovereignty or His love when you go through extended trials.
Not only was John going through a difficult trial that would shortly result in his martyrdom, he also was dealing with disappointed expectations. John came thundering about God’s impending judgment on sinners. He was bold enough to rebuke even King Herod for his immorality. But Herod was still having his drunken parties, still living in immorality with his brother’s wife, while John was in prison. Also, John knew that Isaiah prophesied that Messiah would proclaim freedom to the prisoners and bring in the day of vengeance of our God (Isa. 61:1, 2). And yet, John wasn’t exactly free from prison and God’s vengeance had not been poured out on the likes of Herod. Besides, the Jews, especially the religious leaders, weren’t flocking to submit to Jesus as their Messiah. So John’s expectations about Jesus were disappointed.
William Barclay points out that John may have wrestled with the answer Jesus sent back through his disciples. He told them to go and report to John the many miracles they saw and the fact that the poor had the gospel preached to them. But, as Barclay puts it, “If Jesus was God’s anointed one, John would have expected him to say, ‘My armies are massing. Caesarea, the headquarters of the Roman army is about to fall. The sinners are being obliterated. And judgment has begun’” (The Daily Study Bible, Luke [Westminster Press], p. 89). John had to deal with his mistaken expectations of who Jesus is and what He came to do.
You’ve been there, haven’t you? You thought that Jesus would solve all sorts of problems for you, but instead, the problems have grown worse. You thought that He would make life easier and more abundant, but it has been more difficult and destitute. Perhaps some well meaning saint came along and told you that the reason things weren’t going so well is that you weren’t praying enough. So you prayed more, but the problems persisted. Then he said that you must be harboring some secret sins, so you confessed every sin you could think of, and prayed some more, but God still didn’t seem to be listening. It’s easy for even the godly to doubt at such times. So what’s the answer?
John may have died without resolving some of his theological confusion about Messiah. He knew from Isaiah that Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, but he didn’t seem to understand that Messiah would come twice—the first time to baptize with the Holy Spirit as He proclaimed the favorable year of the Lord; the second time to baptize with the fire of judgment as He will bring the vengeance of our God (Isa. 61:1-2; Luke 4:18-21). But even though John may not have understood everything, he still clung to Jesus. He teaches us two things about dealing with doubt:
Bring your doubts to Jesus Himself.
John sent his disciples straight to Jesus. He could have sent them to the scribes and Pharisees, and they would have only deepened his doubts and perhaps added a few more reasons to doubt. He could have consulted the Hebrew commentaries, but he probably wouldn’t have found much help there. He went directly to Jesus and Jesus gave him a solid answer, along with a gentle rebuke. Jesus did not say, “Cursed is he who doubts Me,” but rather, “Blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me.”
When as a believer you’re struggling with doubt, take your doubts to Jesus in prayer. Make sure your heart is in submission to Him. Make sure that you’re not harboring any sin that lies beneath the surface of your doubts. Then pour out your confusion or difficulty to the Lord. If you need a gentle rebuke, He will give it, but always with a view of bringing healing. Don’t take your doubts to those who sit in judgment on God’s Word. If you read Bible critics, they will not usually strengthen your faith. Reading solid, Bible-believing commentators may help you clarify a matter, and so this can help. But in all your study, you need to lay hold of Jesus Himself. So bring your doubts to Him.
Look to the person and work of Christ Himself.
Jesus told John’s disciples to go and tell John what they had seen and heard, and then cataloged His many miracles that fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. Jesus is saying, “Look at My life and ministry.” He worked miracles by the power of God to authenticate who He was. He preached the good news of salvation to the poor whom society disregarded.
Also, He affirms here that John was the messenger predicted by Malachi, which also affirms that Jesus is the promised Messiah. When Jesus states that John was the greatest of men, but then adds that “he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he,” He is affirming that while John was the greatest of the old era, someone even greater is here, namely, Jesus the Messiah, who ushers in the kingdom of God. John lived in the era of promise; the one who submits to Jesus as king lives in the era of fulfillment.
In explaining why the least in the kingdom is greater than John, William Barclay (ibid., 90) writes,
Why? Some have said that it was because John had wavered, if but for a moment, in his faith. It was not that. It was because John marked a dividing line in history. Since John’s proclamation had been made, Jesus had come; eternity had invaded time; heaven had invaded earth; God had arrived in Jesus; life could never be the same again. We date all time as before Christ and after Christ—B.C. and A.D. Jesus is the dividing line. Therefore, all who come after him and who receive him are of necessity granted a greater blessing than all who went before. The entry of Jesus into the world divided all time into two; and it divided all life in two. If any man be in Christ he is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
So when you struggle with doubt, go back to the basic question, Who is Jesus Christ? Read the Old Testament prophecies. Read the Gospels. Could He have been a charlatan? Or do His life and teaching ring true? In John 6, Jesus taught some difficult things and as a result, many who had been following Him withdrew. Jesus asked the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Peter gave the great reply, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69). When you struggle with doubt, look to the person and work of Jesus Christ Himself.
I have been where Peter was many times, struggling with a hard saying of Jesus or a difficult personal matter that seems to undermine the truth of God’s Word. I have had to go back to the basics and ask, “Where else can I go? I know that Jesus is who He claimed to be. He is the promised Messiah. He is the only Savior. He is risen from the dead.” I may not understand everything, but if I cling to Jesus, I will come through the storms of doubt into calmer seas. To deal with your doubts, make sure that your heart is in submission to God. Then, look to God’s revelation about His Son and hold to it in spite of your difficult circumstances. Jesus will give you aid as you pray, “Lord I believe; help my unbelief!”
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Years ago I knew a man named Glenn who had been doing five years to life in Tehachapi Prison for drug dealing and other charges. One night, in the emptiness of his soul, he wandered into the prison chapel, where he heard the good news that Jesus Christ saves sinners. There, as he later learned, at the same moment that his mother was at home on her knees praying for her wayward son, Glenn got down on his knees and received Jesus Christ as his Savior. His life was dramatically transformed from that moment.
God put in Glenn’s heart the burning desire to tell everyone he met about Christ’s love for sinners. Everyone! One summer night, he and I walked along the boardwalk in Seal Beach, California. We could hardly carry on a conversation because every time we passed someone, Glenn would stop him to tell him about Christ. Another time I was sitting in a restaurant when Glenn walked in and spotted me across the room. He loudly called out, “Praise the Lord, brother Steve!” Then, since he had everyone’s attention, he stopped at each booth on the way to where I was to announce, “Jesus Christ saved me from prison and from sin. Here, read this!” He would hand each person a gospel tract.
I believe that God gave Glenn a special gift to talk to people about Jesus Christ that I lack. But apart from special gifts, Glenn had something that I wanted for myself and that every Christian should desire, namely, a fervent love for Jesus Christ. Glenn’s experience with the Lord was not a formal, go-to-church, run-through-the-motions thing. He was keenly aware of where he would have been if Christ had not reached down and pulled him out of a horrible pit, and he lived each day with fervent devotion to the Lord because of it. He often would say, “I have been forgiven much, and so I love much.”
But that’s where the rub was for me. I don’t have a dramatic, rags-to-riches testimony. I grew up in a Christian home. Accepting Jesus as my Savior is one of my earliest memories. I was raised in church. I have a pin in a drawer at home signifying seven years of perfect Sunday School attendance. I think the actual record was higher, but I just didn’t get the pin. I certainly had my normal share of childhood sins, but I never was rebellious toward my parents, even in my teens. I have never been anywhere close to being drunk. I have never used drugs. I have never been arrested. Compared to Glenn, it seemed as if I had not been forgiven nearly as much.
So I wondered, “How can I develop the same fervent love for the Lord that he seems to have?” I realized that the answer was not to go out and rack up some big sins, so that grace might abound. But Glenn got me thinking about the meaning of this beautiful story in Luke 7:36-50. While I still have a long ways to go, this story has helped me to deepen my own love for the Savior. I believe it will do the same for you if you will take it to heart.
William Barclay remarks, “This story is so vivid that it makes one believe that Luke may well have been an artist” (The Daily Study Bible, Luke [Westminster Press], p. 93). We need to meet the three main characters in this drama. We might call them the Pharisee, the Prostitute, and the Prophet.
The Pharisee: His name was Simon. This story is not a variation of the incident that took place in the home of a Simon the leper, where Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus just prior to His arrest. Simon was a common name. This Simon was a Pharisee, which means that outwardly he was a good, upright, religious man. He attempted to keep the Law of Moses. He tithed his income. He fasted regularly. He prayed at least three times every day. He never missed in his attendance at the synagogue. He was a decent man who was respected as a religious leader in the community.
His relationship to Jesus could be described as formal, distant and cool. He invited Jesus to his home for dinner, probably thinking that the theological discussion would be interesting. This young Teacher was creating quite a stir, and it would be intriguing to interact with Him. But Simon had no sense of personal need. He projected an air of having it together. After all, he was a Pharisee. For him, Jesus didn’t offer anything eternally vital. Scholars debate whether Simon’s withholding of water to wash Jesus’ feet, of the greeting kiss, and of the oil to anoint His head was rude or not. But certainly Simon’s reception of Jesus was much more reserved than he would have shown to the Chief Priest if he had come to dinner. Simon wanted to reflect a certain coolness and distance. He didn’t want his friends to think that he had gone overboard for Jesus or anything like that.
The Prostitute: The second character of the drama, deliberately left unnamed by Luke to guard her privacy, was probably a prostitute. She is not Mary Magdalene or Mary of Bethany. At the least, she was notorious in town for her openly sinful way of life. When she entered the room, eyebrows were raised and voices were lowered to whispers. Jesus’ question to Simon (7:44) is rather amusing: “Do you see this woman?” You can rest assured that Simon was aware of nothing but that woman from the moment she had entered the room! Although it was a common custom for uninvited guests to be able to drop in at such a gathering to listen to the dialog, Simon hardly expected to see the likes of her!
By His question, Jesus was about to showcase a prostitute as an example for a Pharisee to follow! The fact was, Simon had not really seen that woman. He had not seen that she had something he needed, namely, a loving, thankful heart toward the Savior. It took a lot of courage for this woman to seek out Jesus in this gathering that probably included many Pharisees. She knew that she would have to endure stares, whispers, and muffled laughter as the men nudged one another. But she wanted openly to express her love for Jesus, and she was willing to endure public humiliation to do it.
Luke does not tell us, but we must assume that this woman had come under Jesus’ teaching prior to this occasion. Jesus’ words to her (7:48, 50) are words of assurance, not first-time declarations. As this sinful woman had heard Jesus speak of the things of God, she sensed that here was a Man who did not condemn her. She had heard the Pharisees teach that the way to God was to keep the law, to observe countless Sabbath regulations, and to be diligent to avoid ceremonial defilement. But their teaching offered her no hope. It only added to her condemnation. She didn’t even know where to begin!
But then she heard Jesus say, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). She heard of greedy tax collectors who had been transformed by coming to Jesus. Perhaps she heard of another sinful woman to whom Jesus had said, “Neither do I condemn you; go your way; from now on, sin no more” (John 8:11). She thought, “This Man offers hope even to a sinner like me!” And so she repented of her sins and put her trust in this one who came to seek and to save the lost. All of this had happened before that day in Simon’s house.
When she learned that He was nearby, she determined to go to Him and express her deep gratitude for all that He had done for her. At such a dinner, the guests reclined on couches with their heads toward the table, leaning on their left elbows, with their feet away from the table. She planned to slip in and anoint His feet with this expensive perfume as He reclined at the table. But when she got there, she was overcome with emotion. She could not contain her tears. As she clung to His feet and they became wet with her tears, she ignored the custom of a woman not letting her hair down in public. That hair that before she had let down for sinful purposes, she now undid to dry the Savior’s feet. She was so thankful that she kept kissing His feet. Kissing the feet was a common mark of deep reverence, especially to leading rabbis (Alfred Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Luke [Charles Scribners Sons], p. 211). Finally, she took her bottle of costly perfume and poured it on His feet. She didn’t care what anyone else thought. She wanted to show her love for Jesus. In contrast to the cool detachment of the Pharisee, this prostitute had a fervent, demonstrative love for the Lord Jesus who had done so much for her.
Before we look at the third character of the drama, let me ask: Which of these two characters most describes your relationship with Jesus? Are you more like the cool, calm, and collected Pharisee? You’ve got it pretty much together spiritually, so you don’t really need what Jesus offers, namely, forgiveness of sins. Are you like Simon? Or, like this woman, do you see that without Jesus, you’d be hopelessly, helplessly lost in your sins? Like her, are you at liberty to express your deep feelings of love and gratitude for the Savior, in spite of what people might think? Luke wants us to take an honest look at ourselves and identify with either the Pharisee or the prostitute. Clearly, the prostitute is the preferable character here!
The Prophet: Jesus is the third main character of the drama. One of Luke’s main reasons for relating this story is to get us to reflect on the question, “Who is this man, Jesus?” The question came to Simon’s mind as he squirmed while watching this notorious woman kiss Jesus’ feet. He thought, “If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner” (7:39). Luke uses splendid irony by showing that Jesus could read Simon’s secret thoughts, even though Simon doubted that He was a prophet!
The dinner guests also raise the question of Jesus’ identity: “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” (7:49). It’s not the first time in Luke that this question has been asked. Jesus demonstrated His authority to forgive sins by raising the paralytic from his stretcher (5:21, 24). Here, He ignores the murmuring of the religious crowd, assures this sinful woman of her forgiveness and sends her away in peace. You can only rightly forgive sins if they were committed against you. Luke wants us to consider that this man is not only a prophet, He is the one whose Law this sinful woman had broken. As God in human flesh, He could rightly forgive sins.
Having met the main characters, let’s come back to the central question: How do I develop the fervent love for Jesus that this sinful woman had, especially if my background is more like that of the Pharisee? Jesus answers that question in the story about the two debtors that He addresses to Simon (7:41-43). He brings out three simple truths:
Both parties are in debt. The greater debtor refers to the sinful woman, the lesser debtor to the Pharisee. But in God’s sight the woman was not necessarily the greater sinner. Outwardly, as men see things, yes, she was the greater sinner. It is true that sins of the body are worse than sins of the mind (1 Cor. 6:18-19). But God looks on the heart, not just on the outward sins. In his heart, the Pharisee was guilty of pride and self-righteousness, which are serious sins. Also, God judges according to the light that a person has received. To sin against clear knowledge and an informed conscience is more serious than to sin in ignorance, although both are sins. God takes into account the various circumstances that surround a person, such as the person’s upbringing, environment, and the factors that led the person into the sin. God would judge much more severely a young person from a godly upbringing who fell into a lifestyle of immorality than someone from a pagan country who had no knowledge of the gospel. So we do not know which of the two was the worse sinner in God’s sight.
But Jesus couches the story in this way to draw the Pharisee’s neck into the noose. Simon would have been thinking, “Jesus is right; this woman is at least ten times worse than I am.” But in so agreeing, Simon has just acknowledged that he, too, is a debtor! He may not be in quite as deep as the woman, but he is in debt as a violator of God’s holy law. Before you can love the Lord Jesus as the one who paid your debt, you have to come to see that you are, in fact, in debt. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 6:23). “There is none righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10). You must acknowledge, “I have sinned and am guilty before the holy God.” Jesus’ second point pulls the noose tight:
Both debtors were unable to repay. Both were in over their heads. If you can’t repay, you can’t repay! You’re bankrupt! The creditor can take everything you own to recover at least part of his losses. Which person is in bigger trouble: the guy drowning in 50 feet of water or the guy drowning in 500 feet of water? It would be ridiculous for the guy in 50 feet of water to look at the guy in 500 feet and think, “Well, at least I’m better off than that poor wretch!” And, it wouldn’t do any good for the guy in 500 feet of water to think, “If I can just swim over to where that guy is in 50 feet of water, I’ll be okay!”
And yet sinners often think like this! The self-righteous sinner thinks, “I’m better off than that degraded sinner who is drowning in 500 feet of water!” But all the while, he’s going to drown in his 50 feet! Or, the really bad sinner mistakenly thinks, “If I can just clean up my life by swimming over next to that guy in 50 feet of water, I’ll be just fine.” But in God’s sight, both are guilty as lawbreakers. Both are debtors and neither has the ability to repay.
To love Jesus much, you must come to the realization that you are in debt to God because of your sin nature and because of the many deeds of sin that you have committed. You must also realize that there is nothing you can do to repay the debt. All the good deeds in the world added to your sins is like putting frosting over a moldy cake. You’ve got to come to the place where you recognize that your entire cake is moldy and you can’t do anything to fix it.
In his autobiography, Charles Haddon Spurgeon spends a chapter telling of the five years of soul-agony he went through before he got saved at age 15. Although he was outwardly a Bible-reading, church-going son of a pastor in Victorian England, the Holy Spirit took him deeper and deeper in seeing his own pride, self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, and unbelief. He observes that much of the flimsy piety in his day (his comments are still true) was due to the fact that people professed salvation without any deep conviction of sin. He states, “Too many think lightly of sin, and therefore think lightly of the Savior. He who has stood before his God, convicted and condemned, with the rope about his neck, is the man to weep for joy when he is pardoned, to hate the evil which has been forgiven him, and to live to the honor of the Redeemer by whose blood he has been cleansed” (C. H. Spurgeon Autobiography [Banner of Truth], 1:54). He later remarks that he thought that he loved Christ better and could preach Him better to others because he was led to see the depths of his own sinfulness before he came to salvation (ibid., p. 85).
This is a main reason that I stand vigorously opposed to the teaching of Neil Anderson, who has become increasingly popular. He tells Christians that they are not in any way to view themselves as sinners, not even as sinners saved by grace, but rather we should see ourselves as “saints who occasionally sin.” He claims that if you see yourself as a sinner, you will sin more. But his teaching is diametrically opposed to every godly man from the past that I have read and it is opposed to Scripture. The more the Holy Spirit opens my eyes to the holiness of God as revealed in His Word, the more I see my horrible sinfulness. I argue that this process does not stop at conversion, but that the more a person grows in the Lord, the more he sees the terrible blackness of his heart. Yes, by God’s grace every Christian is a saint; but also, we should with Paul see ourselves as the chief of sinners. This growing awareness of the great debt we owe to God and of our utter inability to pay will lead us into a deeper love for Jesus who paid the debt Himself.
“When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both” (7:42). What wonderful words! Why did he forgive them both? Did he look at their character and say, “I think you’re worthy for me to do this?” No! Did he extract a promise to work off the debt in the years to come? No! He forgave them graciously or freely. It stemmed totally from him and not at all from them.
It is crucial that you not misinterpret the text at this point. Some commentators (especially Roman Catholics), based on verse 47, argue that it was this woman’s love for Christ that merited her forgiveness. But Jesus states plainly (7:50) that it was her faith that had saved her, not her love. Also, at the end of verse 47, Jesus does not say, “he who loves little is forgiven little,” but the reverse. The point of Jesus’ story in verses 41-43 is obviously that forgiveness precedes and results in love, not vice versa. In verse 47 Jesus is saying that this woman’s fervent love was an evidence of her great forgiveness which preceded it. For example, we may say, “It is raining, for the window is wet.” The wet window is not the cause of the rain, but the evidence of it. The woman’s fervent love was the evidence of her forgiveness, not the cause of it. When a person sees his debt of sin before God and his inability to meet the debt, it drives him to trust completely in the Savior who graciously forgives the debt. That is the key to developing a fervent love for Christ:
To love Jesus fervently, realize your great debt and your utter inability to repay it and trust totally in God’s grace to forgive it.
The more you see your debt and your own inability to repay it, the more you will see how much the Savior did for you when He took the penalty for your sin on Himself on the cross. When you see the depths of His great love, you will love Him more and more.
There are two groups that I hope will take this message to heart. First, there are those, like myself, who were reared in the church or who have been in the church for many years. You are familiar with the things of God; perhaps too familiar. You can quote John 3:16 while yawning. The gospel does not stir your heart as it used to do. You need to think about how much God has forgiven you so that you will shake your apathy and love Him fervently.
The other group consists of any, like this woman, who are overwhelmed with sin and guilt. I hope that you can see that there is hope for the very worst of sinners who will come to Jesus for forgiveness. He freely forgives both the small and large debtors who cast themselves on His mercy.
The Lord has given us a means by which we can stir up our love for Him: the Lord’s Supper. We should celebrate it often because it keeps us near the cross, where we see the Savior’s loving wounds that He freely suffered to reconcile us to God. Note Jesus’ word (7:40), “Simon, I have something to say to you.” He calls Simon by name and specifies that the story is directly for him. Right now Jesus is calling you by name. He wants His Word to bear in on you personally. Would you like to hear the Savior say directly to you, as He said to this sinful woman, “Your sins have been forgiven?” Then you must join her at Jesus’ feet, deeply aware of your many sins, but even more deeply aware of His abundant grace. Trust totally in Him to save you and not at all in yourself. You will then hear Him say, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Are you in the ministry? You say, “No, I’m just a lay person.” But according to Scripture, if you know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, you are in the ministry. You may not earn your living by the ministry, but neither did the apostle Paul, for the most part. But every believer is gifted for ministry or service and is accountable to God to use those gifts for His glory as His servant or minister.
Suppose I were a wealthy businessman who owned several franchises and I hired you to manage one of them. Several months later I stopped by to see how things were going. You were not at the place of business. In fact, it was locked up and it didn’t look like anyone had been there for some time. Cobwebs crisscrossed the doors and windows. When I finally tracked you down, I asked, “How is the franchise doing?” You said, “To be honest, I’m not sure. I haven’t been able to tend to it lately, because I’ve been so busy. Work has been hectic, the kids are in soccer, I’ve had several projects to do around the house, and I’ve needed to get away for a few weekends so that I didn’t burn out.” You can see how the owner would rightly be concerned about his franchise!
And yet so many Christians view their ministries just as that manager viewed his franchise responsibility. It’s not all that high on the priority list. If you get a little time once in a while to dabble in it, that’s fine. It’s a nice hobby. But when push comes to shove in a busy schedule, ministry isn’t very high on the list.
In Luke 8:1-3 we get a behind the scenes glimpse of how our Lord and the twelve were able to devote themselves full time to the ministry of preaching and evangelizing: Some women whose lives had been transformed by Jesus traveled with them, serving in practical ways and giving generously out of their private means. This passage is what I call a window-shade passage in Scripture. In the Bible are many passages where the shade is always up. These are the great themes of the Bible that run through it, visible to anyone who will pick up the Bible and read. But then, occasionally, you come to these passages where the window shade goes up and is quickly pulled back down. You can easily miss it, or you blink and ask yourself, “What did I just see?” It jumps out at you because it reveals something that is not a major theme throughout the Bible.
For example, in Genesis 15, God explains to Abraham the prophetic future of his descendants. He tells Abraham how his people will be enslaved and oppressed for 400 years before they return to the land of Canaan and then He adds, “For the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete” (Gen. 15:16). When I read that, I say, “Whoa! God knows in advance how much evil He will tolerate before He sends judgment on a wicked people. He is willing to keep His own people enslaved in Egypt for four centuries while He patiently allows the Amorites to fill up the cup of His wrath. Then He commands Moses to lead the people out and Joshua to exterminate the wicked Canaanite nations.” There is a wealth of theology packed into that brief window-shade verse!
In Luke 8:1-3, the shade goes up and we see the ministry of these women to Jesus and the twelve. The women in this story, like the woman in the previous story, had been forgiven much and so they loved Jesus much. They teach us that …
Those who have experienced the Savior’s mercy have the privilege of serving Him out of love.
It is crucial to understand that you cannot rightfully serve the Savior until He truly is your Savior. One of the most frequent gripes leveled at the church is, “They’re always after my money.” One reason people feel that way is that many churches wrongfully try to solicit funds from people who attend the church but who may not yet be believers. But giving to the Lord’s work and other forms of ministry are the privilege of believers only. A person who is not yet a believer may wrongfully think that by giving or by serving, he can earn his way into heaven. But the Bible is clear that no one is saved by good works (Titus 3:5). All good works, including giving, should follow salvation and be motivated by grace.
Note the theme we have seen in earlier studies, of Jesus’ emphasis on preaching and teaching God’s Word. “Proclaiming” is the word often translated “preaching” which means to proclaim as a herald. The herald announced to people the word of the king. He never made up his own message, but rather relayed what the king wanted his subjects to know. The word “preaching” (NASB) is literally, to evangelize or proclaim the good news. Jesus proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God, that God had fulfilled His promises and had sent Jesus as His Messiah and King, the one who would reign on earth and suppress all unrighteousness. Thus at the heart of Jesus’ message was His own lordship and right to rule over the lives of others.
The kingdom of God has both a present and a future aspect. Presently, Jesus reigns from heaven over all that willingly submit to Him as Savior and Lord. But in the near future, Scripture clearly teaches that He will return bodily to rule over the nations with a rod of iron (Rev. 19:15; Ps. 2:6-9). But whether in its present or future aspect, the kingdom of God is built around the lordship of Jesus Christ. Central to the very idea of becoming a Christian is that you have come to know that Jesus is God’s anointed Messiah and King and you submit your life to Him as Lord. The commonly heard notion, “I have accepted Jesus as my Savior, but He is not my Lord,” is appalling. If Jesus is not your Lord, then you are under Satan’s domain of darkness. If Jesus is your Lord, then you are in His kingdom, possessing redemption and forgiveness of sins (Col. 1:13-14).
The point is, Jesus preached specific content, that God is King, that Jesus is His Messiah, and that men must submit to His rule. Becoming a Christian is not just a matter of knowledge, but neither is it devoid of knowledge. At bare minimum, you must know that you have rebelled against the King of the Universe and that Jesus, who is God in human flesh, came to reconcile rebellious sinners to the Heavenly Father through His sacrificial death on the cross. To trust in Jesus as Savior cannot be divorced from submitting to Him as Lord.
These women, along with the twelve (except Judas), had heard Jesus’ preaching on the kingdom of God and had personally responded to that message by submitting their lives to Him. Judas is a warning to us that it is possible to profess Jesus as Savior and even to serve Him, but not to truly believe. But the rest, in spite of their shortcomings, had truly believed. We have already seen how Peter (5:1-11) and Levi (5:27-28) had responded to Jesus. But Luke now mentions these women, three by name and many others unnamed, who had responded to Jesus and were following Him.
Some, such as Mary Magdalene, had been delivered from evil spirits. Contrary to popular opinion, there is no evidence in the Bible that Mary had been an immoral woman. When Luke states that seven demons had gone out of her, he probably means the number literally. But, also, seven is the number of fulness and so he probably means that her life had been completely dominated by evil spirits. The gospels show that evil spirits can inflict both mental and physical infirmities on people in varying degrees. The worst recorded case is the demoniac in the tombs whom we will encounter later in Luke 8:26-39. But we don’t know any more about Mary’s past than is recorded in this passing reference. We do know that her life had been miserable because of this horrible affliction and that because she personally came in contact with Jesus Christ, she was set free.
The second woman mentioned who had personally met Jesus Christ was Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward. Her husband probably was responsible for managing Herod’s vast personal assets. We do not know if he, too, had believed in Jesus, but we can surmise that he did not object to his wife’s traveling with Jesus and His disciples. If he had objected, surely Jesus would have told Joanna to return to her husband and be a witness through her godly behavior. We do not know how she came to hear about Christ. Perhaps she heard through John the Baptist’s witness at court after his arrest. Or, perhaps she suffered from some illness and had gone to where Jesus was ministering and had been healed. Some have suggested that her husband may have been the nobleman whose son Jesus healed (John 4:46-54), but that is unlikely. We encounter her only one other time, as one of the women who went to the empty tomb on that first resurrection morning and reported back to the apostles what she had seen (24:10).
The third woman mentioned by name is Susanna. This is the only reference to her in Scripture. Perhaps she was well-known in the early church and that is why Luke gives her name here. Besides her, there were many others who are left unnamed. But they all had responded personally to Jesus Christ.
Thus to come to know Christ, you must know the content of the good news: who He is and what He came to do. Then, you must respond personally to Him.
There was a marked difference in the eleven and in each of these women that hinged on their meeting Jesus and responding to Him. The main difference is that previously their lives had been dominated by the curse of sin, but after meeting Jesus, they were set free from sin’s devastation. When you are in a public place, do you ever look at people and wince inwardly at the devastating effects of sin? Many people show its effects on their faces. Others have bodies that are crippled or in some degree of impairment. Death is the curse of sin written over the entire human race. We’re all in the process of dying. You would think that dying people would long for the deliverance that only Jesus can bring. But Satan has blinded them to their true condition and their fallen minds are darkened to the light of the gospel.
But when Christ powerfully breaks into a life with His good news of salvation, the captive sinner is released from bondage. The gospel always makes a demonstrable difference in the life of the person who has responded to it. The disciples left their nets and followed Jesus. Matthew left his lucrative tax collection business and followed Jesus. These women were delivered and healed from the afflictions that had dominated their lives. Now they, too, followed that ragtag band. Imagine the gossip that must have surrounded Joanna back in Herod’s court! It would be like one of the Kennedy heirs leaving her mansions and social circles to join an itinerant bunch of evangelists in Mexico! But Joanna’s entire value system was transformed. Formerly she had lived to enjoy the good life of the wealthy and famous. Now she lived to serve her Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. So, the prerequisite for serving the Savior is to come to know Him personally.
A non-ministering Christian is a contradiction in terms. Every person whose life has been changed by Jesus Christ is a servant or minister of Christ. By ministry, I am not so much referring to a task as I am to a mindset. We should constantly remember, “Jesus changed my life so that He can use me to affect others for Him.” Just as there are no spare parts on your physical body, so there are no spare parts in the body of Christ. Every passage that deals with spiritual gifts makes the same point, that every believer is gifted for service (Rom. 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-31; Eph. 4:7-12; 1 Pet. 4:10-11). None are exempt. Let me fill in the sketch given in our text with some basics on spiritual gifts from the rest of Scripture:
All spiritual gifts fall broadly into two categories, serving gifts and speaking gifts (1 Pet. 4:10-11). Jesus called the twelve to train them to carry on His preaching and teaching ministry after His departure. These faithful women were gifted to serve in practical ways, perhaps preparing meals for Jesus and the apostolic band, and in giving financially to support their work. Jesus and the twelve were free to devote themselves to the speaking ministry because these women were faithful in their serving ministry.
In a similar vein, the apostle Paul instructs that some elders in the local church are to devote themselves to the ministry of the Word and that they should be supported financially so they can do this (1 Tim. 5:17-18). In 1 Corinthians 12, he makes it clear that all of the gifts, speaking and serving, are essential for the proper functioning of the body. None are better than others because they are all interdependent.
One of the emphases in Luke’s Gospel is the elevated position Jesus accorded to women. He shows the unique way God used Elizabeth, mother of John, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. He shows the privilege of the godly Anna, who held Jesus in the Temple. Later we will see the close friendship between Jesus and the sisters, Mary and Martha (10:38-42). All the gospels record the faithfulness of the women during the crucifixion and their privilege as the first witnesses of the resurrection. It is interesting that no where in the gospels is a woman recorded as being an enemy of Jesus; all His enemies were men. The prevailing Jewish attitude toward women was less than exemplary. The rabbis refused to teach women and restricted them to the outer court in the temple, along with the Gentiles. They did not regard the testimony of women in a court of law. But Jesus showed personal concern and respect for women. He healed them, forgave them, taught them, and accepted their ministry on His behalf. When you view it in light of the cultural context, Jesus’ treatment of women was nothing short of radical.
But while the Bible clearly affirms and elevates the role of women, it also maintains distinctions between men and women regarding the roles they are to fulfill in the home and in the church. Clearly, Jesus chose no women apostles, although He easily could have done so. Paul makes it clear that elders in the church are to be men, not women. He stipulates that women are not to teach men (1 Tim. 2:9-15). He also stipulates plainly that the husband is the head of the wife and that the wife is to submit to her husband, while balancing that with the observation that both genders are interdependent (1 Cor. 11:3-16; Eph. 5:21-33). Every time that Paul sets forth these principles, he appeals to the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures, not to cultural norms. Thus while we should welcome and affirm the ministry of women, as both Jesus and Paul did, we must be careful to follow the biblical principles on the proper roles for men and women.
Sometimes when the subject of spiritual gifts is discussed, people become obsessed with discovering what their gift is and, once they think they’ve found it, they refuse to do anything else. They think that they can’t help clean up after a social because they’re not gifted in serving! It is useful to have some notion of what your gift is so that you will know where to focus your time and efforts. I think that I am gifted as a pastor-teacher, so I focus on shepherding the flock and preaching and teaching God’s Word. But that does not mean that I do not serve, show mercy, evangelize, give, and do other things that are not my gift. We are all commanded to do just about every spiritual gift. Even if you’re not gifted in teaching, if you have children you are required to teach them the ways of God. Or, God may put you in contact with a new believer who needs instruction in the faith. Even though it’s not your gift, you’re on! Your gifts just show you where to focus.
One way of determining your gift is to do a number of things and discover what you enjoy doing and what God seems to bless. I don’t know if these women were gifted in giving, but they had sufficient personal means to give generously and I would not be surprised to learn that they greatly enjoyed being able to help support Jesus and the twelve. While developing and exercising a spiritual gift is not effortless (I work hard at preaching and teaching!), there is a sense of joy and satisfaction that comes from doing it.
By the way, there is no record of Jesus or the apostles ever soliciting funds for their ministries. I am not saying that it is wrong to let people know about your ministry and the financial needs that exist. But I do think that as givers we have been wrongly conditioned in our day so that we assume that if someone doesn’t loudly advertise that he has a need, he must not have a need. I am suggesting that the biblical pattern is that the donors should take the initiative in seeking out the needs of faithful workers, so that the burden is not on the workers to make their needs known. These faithful women could see that Jesus and the disciples were not getting rich off the gospel. They saw the needs and took the initiative to give without being pressured.
There should never be any competition or conflict between the various gifts, but rather cooperation and joy in diversity as we work harmoniously for the same cause. Do you ever chuckle at the diverse people the Lord draws together into His church? Among the twelve, you have Matthew the former tax collector and Simon the Zealot who used to plot how to kill tax collectors! Among these women, you have Mary Magdalene, a former demoniac, and Joanna, a woman of high culture and wealth. It brings great glory to the Lord and the gospel when people of different racial and social backgrounds, and with different personalities and gifts, come together as one body to serve Him.
But we have to be careful! As Paul points out, it’s easy for the eye to say to the hand, “I have no need of you” (1 Cor. 12:16). But it would be ludicrous if the whole body were an eye or if the ear said, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body.” These faithful women were not preaching the gospel along with the apostles, but they were just as important in the cause of Christ. Without them, humanly speaking, Jesus and the twelve would have had to spend time working to support themselves and would not have been free to preach the gospel.
Luke does not say this directly, but placing the example of these women right after the story of the woman who loved much because she had been forgiven much, the point is clear. These women had been healed of evil spirits and various sicknesses, and so they now served Jesus out of love and gratitude. Joanna was willing to give up the comforts of palace life and endure the hardships of following Jesus on His travels because of what He had done for her. God’s grace as shown to you at the cross of Christ is always the supreme motive to serve Him with all your might.
Again, we must be careful: It’s easy to serve Christ for the wrong motives. We like the recognition people give us. We like seeing the results. Or, perhaps we wrongly think we can work off our guilt through our service. But with Paul we should be able to say that God’s grace is what causes us to labor long and hard for Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:10).
So let me come back to my original question: Are you in the ministry? I hope that everyone here who has tasted the grace of the Lord Jesus in salvation will answer, “Yes, Jesus is my Lord and so I am under loving obligation to serve Him with all my life.” As Paul put it, “He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Cor. 5:15).
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
If you have been a Christian for a while, you have ridden the roller coaster of great joy in seeing someone make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, followed by awful disappointment as the same person later fell away from the faith. For a while he seemed to be dramatically changed. He got involved in the church. He was zealous for the things of God. But then a difficult trial hit. Perhaps he had a conflict with someone in the church. Or he had a personal health problem or he lost a loved one. His zeal cooled off and gradually he stopped coming to church. Every effort to restore him failed. Today he is back in the world.
Others don’t fall away altogether, but their early enthusiasm wanes. They settle into a routine that includes going to church as long as there isn’t something “better” to do for the weekend. But God is not central in their lives. They are more focused on their things and on having a good time in life. They profess to be Christians, but they have no burden for the lost and no desire to serve God. They are living basically for self and for pleasure. But they are not living in light of eternity.
How do you explain such people? Some would say that they have lost their salvation, but that clearly contradicts the many clear passages that teach that those whom God saves, He keeps for eternity. Others say that these folks are saved, but they are “carnal.” They can go through life living in this carnal or worldly state and they will still go to heaven, but they won’t have many rewards waiting for them. But this popular but false teaching contradicts Hebrews 12, which says that if a person is truly God’s child, then God will discipline him. If a person lacks such discipline, he is not a true child of God at all.
In the familiar parable of the sower, we see that even Jesus saw people respond superficially to His message. The parable serves both as an encouragement to His followers and a warning to His hearers. The encouragement to His followers is that when we see people respond superficially to the gospel and later fall away, we should not be discouraged in that even Jesus had the same response. The problem was certainly not in His preaching, but in the audience’s hearing. The warning to those who hear the parable, of course, is to take it to heart so that we avoid a superficial faith. Whatever the current state of our hearts, we can appeal to God to grant us a new heart so that we will hold fast to Him and bear fruit with perseverance. Clearly, Jesus was not teaching some sort of fatalism, that the kinds of soils are fixed forever. By God’s grace, a person can change.
To understand this parable, we must see the context: Jesus’ ministry was immensely popular (8:4). People were journeying from great distances to hear Him speak. Many confuse popularity with fruitfulness. When large crowds flock to a church, the preacher and the congregation think, “Look how God is blessing!” But, is He truly blessing? Jesus knew that large crowds did not equal God’s blessing unless those in the crowd were truly responding to God’s Word with saving faith. Jesus knew the selfish and fickle hearts of sinful men. He also knew the intensity of the spiritual conflict when the gospel is preached, that Satan waits to snatch the seed before it can take root in hearts. So He spoke this parable as a warning of the danger of a superficial response to the gospel.
Why did Jesus speak in a parable that even His disciples did not at first understand? Jesus explains in verse 10: “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, in order that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.” The latter half of that verse is a quotation from Isaiah 6:9, which is quoted no less than six times in the New Testament. Parables serve two functions: They reveal truth to those who are spiritually responsive; and they conceal truth from those who are spiritually superficial or scoffing.
Jesus’ words and the quote from Isaiah plunge us into one of the deep mysteries that we cannot fully grasp, the fact that God sovereignly grants salvation to His elect, but that sinners are fully responsible for their persistence in sin and their ultimate condemnation. For the disciples, God sovereignly granted that they know the mysteries of the kingdom of God (8:10). No one can boast that he discovered these mysteries by his own reasoning or investigation. Only God can reveal them and He does not reveal them to everyone. Is God then unfair? Not at all, because men are responsible for their selfishness, stubbornness, and sin. They have no one but themselves to blame for their own hardness of heart.
John Calvin (Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists [Baker], 2:108) uses the illustration of the effects of the sun on a person with weak eyes. When such a person steps out into bright sunlight, his eyes become dimmer than before, but the fault lies not with the sun but with the person’s weak eyes. Even so, when the Word of God blinds the reprobate, it is not the fault of the Word, but of the person’s own depravity. Thus by speaking in parables, Jesus was seeking to foster a genuine response from His elect who would apply the truth to their hearts. But He was also concealing the gospel from those who were merely curious but who were not willing to apply it to their hearts. They would continue in their spiritual blindness. But they would not thwart the sovereign purpose of God’s kingdom.
Jesus explained this parable privately to His disciples. We need to make several correlations to grasp the meaning:
(1) The seed is the Word of God (8:11). Of His own ministry, Jesus said, “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me” (John 12:49-50). Also, as Paul stated, “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16, literal translation). In other words, Jesus, the prophets, and the apostles were not religious geniuses who gave us their best ideas about God and man. Rather, they were inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit to record what God chose to reveal to us in His written Word (2 Pet. 1:21). God uses that word implanted to save our souls (James 1:18, 21).
Just as a seed has life in it, so the Word of God is alive and can impart life to those who are spiritually dead. Just as a seed has great power in it, so that it can sprout and grow to the point that eventually it cracks the foundation of a house, so the Word of God can germinate in the human heart and do a mighty work of transformation. Just as a seed can produce a tree that bears much fruit which gives nourishment, sustains life, and in turn produces more seeds to produce more trees and fruit, so the Word of God can bear fruit in human lives.
This means that when we talk to people about Jesus Christ, we must share the content of the gospel from God’s Word. So often in our day Jesus is presented as an emotional experience: “Believe in Jesus and you’ll feel better and your problems will be solved.” But many people know nothing of the Jesus in whom they are being encouraged to believe. To encourage a person who does not know what the Bible says about Christ to believe in Him is to encourage him to believe in a figment of his own imagination. Before you encourage such a person to make a decision for Christ, encourage him to read the Bible, especially the Gospels. He needs to know something about who God is, who man is, and who Jesus is as revealed in the Word before he can intelligently repent of his sin and believe in Jesus Christ.
(2) The sower is the one who proclaims the gospel. Jesus was speaking primarily of Himself as the sower. But His followers are also sowers of the Word as they proclaim the gospel to those who are lost. One purpose of this parable is to encourage Jesus’ followers to sow the seed faithfully in spite of disappointing responses. Even Jesus knew that many would not respond rightly to His preaching, but He went on sowing the seed in obedience to the Father. The disappointing responses do not indicate a lack of power or effectiveness in the seed, but rather they point to the problem of the soil, the sinfulness of human hearts. But God is pleased by the foolishness of our proclaiming the gospel to save some (1 Cor. 1:21), and so we must faithfully sow the seed.
Sowers must be people of faith. They trust that by scattering the seed, some of it will yield a crop. The sower does not understand exactly how this happens, nor does he need to understand. He just knows that it does happen, so he expectantly throws out the seed. One reason that I have devoted hours every week for almost 22 years now to preparing biblical sermons is that I believe that God’s Word will not return to Him empty without accomplishing the purpose for which He sent it forth (Isa. 55:10-11). So whether you give people tapes or printed copies of biblical sermons or tracts or Gospels of John or New Testaments, scatter the seed of God’s Word. In due time you will reap fruit for eternity.
By the way, are you sowing, watering, and nourishing the seed of God’s Word in your own life? I sometimes wonder what would happen if Christians would spend as much time each week reading the Bible as they spend reading the newspaper and watching TV. If you feed your mind on the world, you won’t grow in the things of God. If you sow God’s Word in your heart repeatedly, some of it will sprout and bear fruit if you’ve got good soil. That leads to the third key to understanding this parable:
(3) The soil is the human heart. Although the seed is powerful, it must fall on good soil to bear fruit. The Lord outlines four soils, only one of which is fruitful. When Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (8:8), He is exhorting each person to examine his own heart and take the appropriate action to become good soil. While only God can grant repentance and give good and honest hearts to those who are dead in their sins, we are responsible to seek Him for these things. That leads to …
Our response to God’s Word should be genuine, not superficial.
When Jesus mentions four types of soils, He is not giving percentages. Rather, He is showing four general responses to the gospel. At various times there will be more in one category or another, according to the sovereign moving of God’s Spirit. Also, we need to understand that the parable is not about momentary, immediate response, but rather about the response to the Word over the long haul. It takes time for the seed to sprout and wither, or be choked out by thorns, or to bear fruit. Thus we must continually examine ourselves to make sure that we are cultivating the seed of God’s Word in our hearts. The Christian life is a marathon, not a 100-yard dash.
The four soils can be grouped into two categories: the unfruitful and the fruitful. All four soils hear the Word. The first soil is the only one not to accept it at all. The second soil accepts the seed briefly and shows initial promise, but it soon dies out. The third soil seems to make even further progress, but eventually the thorns choke it out. Only the fourth soil eventually bears fruit.
Some would argue that since the last three soils accepted the seed, and since it is stated about the seed on the rocky soil that “they believe for a while” (8:13), these all are saved; only the first category is lost. But, clearly Jesus gives no encouragement or comfort to any except those in the fourth category. Darrel Bock explains (Luke [IVP], pp. 148-149),
Faith saves; the absence of faith does not. So to believe for a time is not to believe in a commendable way, since the end result is not faith. One cannot end up unbelieving and have a faith that saves, for then salvation comes in unbelief. Another way to say this is that genuine faith is permanent …. Our theological problems may emerge here because we tend to view faith as a response of the moment. The New Testament stresses that faith in Jesus is permanent, being established by a rebirth. Its permanence is suggested by its nature as the product of the regenerating work of God ….
Note, first, the three superficial responses to God’s Word:
Some of the seed fell along footpaths near the edge of the field. Dirt that is continually trampled under foot gets as hard as pavement, so that seed cannot take root there. Besides, the birds (representing the devil) come and eat the seed “so that they may not believe and be saved” (8:12). Jesus isn’t just using a figure of speech when He mentions the devil. There is a real spiritual battle raging for the souls of men and women. Satan hardens people’s hearts by the traffic of worldly philosophies. People engage in worldly, man-centered thinking so often that their hearts grow callused to the truth of God. For example, many in our culture are so steeped in the postmodern ideas that spiritual truth is relative and that it doesn’t matter what you believe that they automatically reject the exclusive claims of the gospel because it runs counter to the ideas they have trafficked in for all their lives.
It is ironic that these are people who would scoff at the idea of a personal devil, and yet that very devil is the one who snatches away the seed of the gospel from them! In their hardness of heart, they feel no need for God. We need to pray that God will break up the hard ground of their hearts with the plow of trials so that they will be open to receive the truth of the gospel.
This is not soil with rocks scattered in it, but rather a thin layer of soil over hard limestone. The warm, thin soil welcomes the seed, which seems at first to thrive more quickly than seed planted in deeper soil. But the roots cannot penetrate the limestone to find water, so when the hot sun rises, it withers and dies.
This represents the person who impulsively welcomes the gospel without counting the cost. Perhaps he heard that following Jesus would magically solve all his problems and that Jesus offers an abundant life, so he emotionally responds. At first, he seems to be zealous for the Lord. He seems to make rapid progress in the faith. But then, trials hit. Because his Christian experience was based more on emotion than on truth, he has no deep roots into the Word. He falls away. It’s not that he lost his salvation; it’s that he never truly was saved in the first place.
When we share the gospel, we need to be careful not to paint too rosy a picture. Yes, God freely forgives all a person’s sins the moment he trusts in Christ. Yes, God’s Word is sufficient for all the problems we face in this life. But, no, God usually does not solve our problems instantly or easily. The Christian life is a fight of faith, and while we are assured of final victory, the battle can get pretty tough in the meanwhile. We don’t do people a favor to gloss over the reality of what it means to follow Jesus.
The seed on the thorny ground lasts a bit longer than that on the rocky soil. But gradually the thorns take over and choke out the seed of the word so that it does not produce any fruit. Jesus identifies the thorns as “worries, riches, and pleasures of this life” (8:14). This is the person who wants the best of both worlds. He professes to believe in Jesus, but his heart is divided. He is still drawn after what this world has to offer. He may be rich or he may be poor. Jesus is not talking about the amount we possess, but about our focus. This heart among the thorns is not fully committed to seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. He is trying to serve two masters, but he really is serving mammon, not God.
The Bible does not condemn riches or pleasure per se, but it does condemn living for riches or pleasure (1 Tim. 5:6; 6:9-10). Even those who truly know Christ must continually pull out the weeds of greed and sensuality. We must constantly deny the lure of the world that falsely tells us to live for this life only. We must continually remember the exhortation, “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15).
The common factor of these first three soils is that none of them bear fruit. Some look promising for a while, but there was no fruit because they were never truly saved. So we all must examine our own lives and ask, “Am I bearing fruit for God over the long haul? Is my faith superficial or genuine?”
The good soil represents “the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance” (8:15). The word translated “honest” means “good” in the sense of attractive or useful. It is often used to refer to good works. A person who does good works from the right motives is an attractive person. There is something beautiful and winsome about such a life.
The fact that Jesus calls this heart “honest and good” does not mean that He believed in the inherent goodness of some people. Jesus certainly agreed with the Hebrew Scriptures which repeatedly affirm the sinfulness of every human heart (Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Ps. 14:3; Jer. 17:9). Jesus Himself taught that the human heart is the source of all sorts of wickedness (Mark 7:21-23). He told even His disciples that they were evil (Luke 11:13) and He told the rich young ruler that none is good except God alone (Luke 18:19).
Any good heart is good because God graciously has wrought the miracle of regeneration in that heart. In response to God’s grace, this person hears the Word, holds it fast, and bears fruit over the long haul with perseverance. Fruit is that which the life of God produces in and through a believer. It includes Christlike character, conduct, and converts. The fruitful Christian is not only a hearer of the Word, but also a doer of it. He feeds on it continually so that it confronts his sin, it challenges his wrong attitudes, and it shows him how to live in a manner pleasing to God. He is not being conformed to this world, but is being transformed by the renewing of his mind (Rom. 12:2).
The popular preacher, Chuck Swindoll, tells of ministering at a family conference. There was a young couple there with several small children, and it was obvious that they had some serious problems in their marriage. But as the week progressed, Chuck watched this couple change as they sat under the teaching of God’s Word. The husband seemed to hang on every word. The wife had her Bible open and followed carefully from passage to passage. On the last day, they both came up to Chuck and said, “We want you to know that this week has been a 180 degree turn around experience for us. When we came, we were ready to separate. We’re going back now stronger than we have ever been in our marriage.”
That’s tremendous! But the sad thing, Chuck said, is that at the same conference with the same speakers, the same truths, and the same surroundings, another man was turned off. He wasn’t open to God’s Word. He attended the first few sessions, but his guilt became so great and his conviction so deep that he went home. His family left hurting, perhaps even more so than when they came. What was the difference between those two men at the same conference? The difference was the condition of the soil of their hearts.
In Jesus’ audience that day were some who immediately shrugged off His teaching. Some welcomed His message but fell away as soon as persecution arose. Others, like Judas, allowed the thorns of greed to choke out the word. But many heard His word eagerly, held it fast, and brought forth fruit for eternity.
God wants each of us to check the soil of our hearts. Is it hard and resistant? Is it shallow and impulsive? Is it divided and worldly? Or, is it responsive to His Word over the long haul? Ask God for a responsive heart. Cultivate the seed of His Word every day. You will reap the fruit of eternal life in yourself and in others.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Challenging his wife with a riddle, the man began, “You’re the engineer of a train. There are 36 people on board. At the first stop, 10 get off and 2 get on. At the next stop, no one gets off, but 5 get on. At the third stop, 4 get off and 2 get on. Now for the question: What is the name of the engineer?”
“How should I know?” snapped the wife.
“See, you never listen! Right at the start I said, ‘You are the engineer of a train.’”
That little story shows how we often fail to listen carefully. What husband or wife has not had the experience of mumbling “Uh huh” while his partner is talking, but his mind is tuned out? One husband dropped his newspaper, looked directly into his wife’s eyes, and gave her his full attention while she was speaking. “Stop it,” she snapped. “You’re deliberately listening just to confuse me.”
Just as we often fail to listen carefully to other people, so we often fail to listen carefully to the Lord. His Word is often clear on the issue we are facing. But our minds are already made up and we don’t want to hear what God says because it confronts the direction we want to go. God can speak clearly, but if we are not listening carefully, we miss His will for our lives.
In our text, Jesus warns, “Take care how you listen!” (8:18). Is Jesus addressing the crowd or just the twelve? The full exhortation of verse 18 seems better suited to the whole multitude, but there doesn’t seem to be a break between Jesus’ private explanation of the parable (8:10-15) and these verses, which lends weight to the view that He is speaking only to the twelve.
The flow of thought seems to go back to verse 10, where Jesus explained that the purpose of His parables was both to reveal truth to the spiritually responsive and to conceal truth from the spiritually superficial. Jesus does not want His disciples to think that His main purpose is to conceal truth. Thus He gives the illustration of the lamp being set on the lampstand, not hidden under a container or bed, to show them that the main purpose of His teaching is to illumine the truth, not to hide it. But, at the same time, light serves two functions: it illumines, but it also exposes. Jesus’ teaching not only illumines the truth, it also exposes the evil that lurks in the dark corners of the human heart (8:17). Therefore, we must take care how we listen, so that we respond obediently to Jesus’ teaching, rather than shrink from it because it convicts us of sin. If we respond obediently, we will receive more light. If we shrink back, what light we think we have will be taken from us.
Luke then inserts the story about Jesus’ mother and brothers (8:19-21) to underscore the importance of obeying Jesus’ teaching. The key to being close to Jesus is not blood relationship or any other natural privilege, but obedience to God’s Word. This means that any person, Jew or Gentile, male or female, can be closer to Jesus than His natural mother and brothers were. The way to be close to Jesus is to listen carefully to His Word with a view to obedience. As in the parable of the sower, there is both an encouragement and a warning in these verses:
Since God’s truth is revealed in Jesus, we must listen carefully and obediently or His teaching ultimately will judge us.
Thus verses 16 and 17 make the point that God’s truth is revealed in Jesus. Verse 18 applies it by stating that we must listen carefully or that very truth will some day judge us. Verses 19-21 illustrate the point, that obedience to God’s Word is primary.
Many commentators understand verses 16 and 17 to be an exhortation to the disciples to function as light. They are not to hide God’s Word from God’s people, but to preach it clearly. The main support for this view is the connection with Matthew 5:15-16, where Jesus uses the illustration of the light on the lampstand and then applies it by telling us to let our light shine before men. But the lamp on the lampstand illustration seems to be one that Jesus used on several occasions, and we must interpret it by its context in each case.
Some argue that the context of Luke 8 fits this interpretation, that the disciples are to take the words which Jesus presently was compelled to speak in parables and make them plain after His resurrection and ascension (Norval Geldenhuys, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke [Eerdmans], p. 247). While this is a possible interpretation, and I am not opposed to it as a secondary thrust of Jesus’ words, I think the primary meaning is slightly different.
I think that Jesus is clarifying verse 10 so that the twelve do not mistake His point. Jesus’ teaching is the light that is put on the lampstand. His words are not given for the primary purpose of concealing God’s truth, but for revealing it. But, the same light that reveals truth also exposes sin. Because of this two-fold function of the light of God’s truth, no one can respond neutrally to Jesus’ teaching. Either we respond obediently and draw closer to God or we ignore it and deceive ourselves. What we think we have will one day be taken from us.
Let’s consider how what Jesus is saying in verse 16 applies to us. The lamp was a small clay pitcher with a spout, filled with oil and a wick. Obviously, a person didn’t light such a lamp for the purpose of putting it under a container or under a bed. He lit it so that he could set it on a stand and light up his house. In other words, the lamp had a very practical function. Without it, a person would bang his shins against low-lying furniture. He would trip over the kids toys that had been left on the floor. He couldn’t see to cook or read or do anything. The lamp was lit to be used, not to be hidden.
In the same way, God has given us the Bible, including the teachings of Jesus, to shed light on how we should live so that we don’t grope around in the darkness, whacking our shins on the obstacles that the Word warns us about. Many people, especially young people, want to know the will of God for their lives. Whom shall I marry? What should I do with my life? Etc. God’s Word reveals principles on each of these crucial questions so that you don’t whack your shins on the wrong ways of the world. Clearly, God’s will is that you should marry only a spiritually minded, God-centered Christian, because the Word commands us not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14-18). His will is that we should spend our lives serving the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever we do to earn a living, because we are to seek first His kingdom and righteousness (Matt. 6:33). We are to be morally pure, because His will is our sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3). These and many other vital principles for right living are revealed to us in God’s Word of truth.
Several years ago when our children were young, Marla’s parents were building a new home in Ensenada, Mexico. We went down to visit them and were taking a walk along their dirt street. I looked over at Daniel, who was a toddler, and grabbed him just before he stepped into a huge open hole that workers had dug for a utility pole and left uncovered. Unlike the United States, where there are warnings and barricades, this hole was right along the street but with no protection.
Marla’s parents were renting a duplex next door to their new home, and we were staying in the second unit. Later that night, we had put the children to bed and Marla and I had just settled into bed when we heard the front door slam. I knew that I had closed it, so it startled me. I jumped up and discovered that Christa was not in bed—she was sleepwalking and had gone out the door! I immediately thought of that open hole and panicked! We had a few frightening moments before we found her safely next door, saying something nonsensical to Marla’s parents, who could not figure out what was going on.
Without God’s Word, people are wandering in this dark, dangerous world without illumination from God. They’re falling into the open holes of drug use, sexual immorality, anger, bitterness, self-centeredness, greed, and a host of other sins. God’s Word is the light that tells them how to walk so that they don’t destroy themselves with sin. As believers, we must live in the light of God’s Word ourselves. Then, by our example and our words, we must help others see God’s ways.
You may wonder, why wouldn’t everyone want God’s light to illumine their lives so that they can see how to avoid the holes and dangers of the dark? Jesus explained, “Men loved the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed” (John 3:19-20). This shows us …
There also is debate about the meaning of this verse. Some think it refers to God’s truth that will be made obvious through the apostles’ teaching. But the warning in the next verse to hear carefully fits better with the view that God’s light exposes the sinfulness of human hearts. But therein lies the danger: we all are inclined to hide from the light rather than to allow it to expose the foulness of our hearts.
Years ago, a wealthy Chinese businessman visited England and was fascinated by a powerful microscope and the wonders it uncovered. So he bought one and took it back to China. He thoroughly enjoyed using it until one day when he looked at some rice that he was planning to eat for dinner. To his shock, he saw tiny living creatures crawling in it. He didn’t know what to do, since rice was a staple of his diet. Finally, in frustration, he smashed his microscope to bits. It had revealed something distasteful to him, so he destroyed the source of the discovery!
That was rather foolish, but how many people do the same thing with the Bible or with sermons from the Bible that expose their sin. They don’t feel comfortable with what they see, so they get rid of the source rather than deal with the sin! The Puritan pastor, Thomas Watson, said concerning the Scriptures, “Take every word as spoken to yourselves. When the word thunders against sin, think thus: ‘God means my sins;’ when it presses any duty, ‘God intends me in this.’ Many put off Scripture from themselves, as if it only concerned those who lived in the time when it was written; but if you intend to profit by the word, bring it home to yourselves: a medicine will do no good, unless it be applied” (cited by Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life [Navpress], p. 53). That is what Jesus exhorts us to do in verse 18:
Jesus says, “Therefore, take care how you listen, for whoever has, to him shall more be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him.”
Note the emphasis on hearing or listening in the context: 8:8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 21. Listening carefully to God’s Word involves several elements:
First, listening carefully means taking the time to read the Word and meditate on its meaning. Even among those who attend church regularly, so many are simply ignorant of what the Bible says because they do not take the time consistently to read it and think about what it means. In our busy schedules, we often rush through devotions (if we have them at all) without taking the time to chew on what the text means and how it applies to our lives.
A few years ago there was a man in his eighties named Carl Sharsmith who had spent over 50 summers as a guide in Yosemite National Park. This man delighted in the spectacular beauty of that place, and he was always discovering some new facet of it to revel in. But often he got hit with a question that a lady asked him one afternoon: “I’ve only got an hour to spend at Yosemite,” she declared. “What should I do? Where should I go?” The old naturalist ranger finally found a voice to reply. “Ah, lady, only an hour.” He repeated it slowly. “I suppose that if I had only an hour to spend at Yosemite, I’d just walk over there by the river and sit down and cry.”
Just as there is enough in Yosemite to spend a lifetime of summers exploring, so there is enough in the Bible to spend your lifetime digging out and meditating on. If we do not understand it, we must ask God to open our minds to its meaning. We must go back and spend more time observing what it says and does not say. We must read the context over and over to get the flow of thought. Take the time often to spend with the Lord in His Word.
Second, listening carefully means always looking for Christ in the Word. Jesus chastised the Jews by saying, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me” (John 6:39). With the two men on the Emmaus Road, “beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, [Jesus] explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). Whether we’re in the Old Testament or in the New, we ought to draw closer to the Lord Jesus if we are listening carefully to what God has revealed.
Spurgeon tells the story of a young preacher who preached a very fine sermon—what Spurgeon calls “a highfaluting, spread-eagle sermon.” When he was done, the young man asked an old Welsh preacher who had heard him what he thought of it. The old man replied that he did not think much of it. “Why not?” asked the young man. “Because there was no Jesus Christ in it.” “Well,” said the young preacher, “my text did not seem to run that way.” The old preacher said, “Never mind, but your sermon should have run that way.” He went on, “This is the way to preach. From every little village in England—it does not matter where it is—there is sure to be a road to London. Now, from every text in the Bible there is a road to Jesus Christ, and the way to preach is just to say, ‘How can I get from this text to Jesus Christ?’ and then go preaching all the way along it.”
The young preacher said, “Well, but suppose I find a text that has not got a road to Jesus Christ.” “I have preached for 40 years,” said the old man, “and I have never found such a Scripture, but if I ever do find one, I will go over hedge and ditch but what I will get to him, for I will never finish without bringing in my Master.” (Sermon, “How to Read the Bible.”)
For sake of time I mention only a third way to listen to God’s Word carefully: Listening carefully means always seeking to apply the Word to my own heart and life. The two questions that Paul asked the Lord on the Damascus Road are good ones to ask when you read the Word or listen to it being preached: “Who are You, Lord?” and, “What shall I do, Lord?” (Acts 22:8, 10). Those two questions are linked: If He is the risen Lord and Savior, who gave Himself for my sins, then it has a great deal of bearing on how I must live.
To read the Word without applying it doesn’t do us any good. The Word was not given to fill our heads with interesting facts, but to change our hearts into conformity to Jesus Christ. I have met Christians who can tell you the tense of Greek verbs in the New Testament and who will argue the subtle nuance of some theological point, but they are angry and insensitive toward their families. The whole point of Scripture is summed up in the two great commandments, to teach us how to love God and to love one another. If we aren’t learning to do that, we’re missing the point. If we listen carefully to God’s Word, He will give us more light so that we can grow more. But, …
Jesus’ warning in this verse applied to the Pharisees, who thought they knew the Scriptures, but missed the Messiah of whom the Scriptures prophesied. God judged them by taking away their temple and their land in the great destruction under Titus in A.D. 70. His warning also applied to Judas, who superficially listened to Jesus’ teaching, but did not apply it to his own heart. The Pharisees and Judas were not irreligious pagans. They seemed to be zealous for the things of God. Judas was one of the twelve. Yet both the Pharisees and Judas were deceived. They thought they knew God, but they didn’t know Him at all because they didn’t apply His Word to their hearts. In the end, they lost everything.
Because there is this element of self-deception, we must be very careful here. It’s easy for spiritual pride to slip in, where our knowledge of the Bible fools us into thinking that we are spiritually mature because we know so much. We must constantly confront ourselves with the standards of Scripture applied to our thoughts, attitudes, and behavior, especially as seen in our relationships at home. Is my thought life pure? Do I deal with my grumbling, unbelieving, unthankful spirit? Does my family see the fruit of the Spirit in my dealings with them? If I put on a good front at church, saying, “Lord, Lord,” but I don’t practice His Word in private and at home, I will be shocked some day to hear Him say, “Depart from Me, I never knew you, who practice lawlessness.”
Luke drives home the point with this incident of Jesus’ family coming to visit Him. He uses the story to show that the key to a relationship with Jesus is not birth or other natural privileges, but obedience to God’s Word. Those who obey Him are truly Jesus’ family. Jesus was not repudiating family ties or obligations, but He was setting priorities. Allegiance to God’s Word must be first, even more important than family. Jesus is most intimate with those who hear and obey His Word. As He told His disciples, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him” (John 14:21). If you want Jesus to disclose Himself to you, you must hear His word with a view to obedience. He calls such ones His mother and His brothers! The wonderful privilege of being close to Jesus is open to anyone who walks in obedience to Him!
Sometimes people complain that reading God’s Word or listening to it being preached is boring. I admit that some portions of the Word are difficult and that some preachers are not very exciting. But often our problem is with our own attitude, not with the Word or with the preacher.
Shortly before he died, Rowland Hill, an 18th century British preacher who was used greatly by God, was visiting on old friend who said, “Mr. Hill, it is now 65 years since I first heard you preach; but I remember your text, and a part of your sermon.” “Well,” asked the preacher, “what part of the sermon do you recollect?” His friend answered, “You said that some people, when they went to hear a sermon, were very squeamish about the delivery of the preacher. Then you said, ‘Supposing you went to hear the will of one of your relatives read, and you were expecting a legacy from him; you would hardly think of criticizing the manner in which the lawyer read the will; but you would be all attention to hear whether anything was left to you, and if so, how much; and that is the way to hear the Gospel’” (Told by C. H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students [Zondervan], condensed and edited by David Fuller, pp. 374-375).
Whether you’re listening to a sermon or reading God’s Word, take care how you listen! The Bible is God’s revealed truth. If you listen with a view to obedience, you will be blessed. There are riches there for you—if you will listen carefully as God speaks.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
One of the most awful experiences of my life occurred when I was in the Coast Guard. Sixty mile-per-hour gale-force winds were churning up 20-30 foot seas and we had to rescue a man and his daughter whose sailboat was dead in the water somewhere beyond Catalina Island. Our 82-foot cutter would roll until the screws came out of the water and green water came over the above-deck porthole. I would think, “We’re going over this time!” Then, we would roll the other direction. Sometimes we would crash head on into a gigantic wave and the whole boat would shudder as if it was going to come apart at the seams.
I tried to calm my fears by thinking, “You never read about the Coast Guard losing any boats in storms, so maybe we won’t go down.” I was so seasick that when I wasn’t afraid that we would die, I wished that I could. It took us nine hours from the time we left Long Beach until we had the sailboat safely in Avalon harbor.
Storms aren’t fun, either at sea or in real life. Yet we learn lessons through storms that we never would learn if life were always calm. The Christian faith is not just to get us to heaven when we die. It teaches us how to live in the here and now, especially when life gets stormy. Luke 8:22-25 relates the miracle of Jesus calming the storm at sea as the first of a series of miracles that culminate in Peter’s confession (9:20). These miracles have much to teach us (as they taught the disciples) about who Jesus is and what that means to us in the trials of life. This miracle shows us that …
Since Jesus is Lord over all, we must trust Him in the storms of life.
At the end of this brief story, the disciples remark with awe, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?” That is the question Luke wants us to consider: “Who then is this?” The clear answer is,
In the beginning, Jesus spoke and created the universe. Thus it was no big deal for Him to speak to the wind and waves of His creation and have them obey Him. Yet for the disciples, who were still growing in their awareness of who Jesus is, it was an amazing miracle. We all know that Jesus is Lord and we can repeat the phrase easily. But we often do not really know Him as Lord in the practical, daily situations we encounter. So the Lord often does for us what He did for the disciples:
Jesus said, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” Did He know what He was getting them into? Surely He did. He knows all things and so He knew they would encounter this storm. Although the disciples were veteran fishermen who knew this lake, they probably didn’t anticipate the storm. The Sea of Galilee is about 13 miles long and 7 miles wide. It sits in a depression that is almost 700 feet below sea level, surrounded by mountains that rise to about 2,000 feet above sea level on the eastern side. When winds funnel down those hills, it can create sudden, violent storms. It was one of those unexpected storms that hit that evening—unexpected to the disciples, but not to the Lord Jesus. It must have been quite a storm, because even these seasoned fishermen feared for their lives. But even though it was so terrible, the sovereign Lord led them directly into it!
When serious trials hit, I often hear people say, “The Lord didn’t cause this trial; He only allowed it.” Somehow they think that they are getting God off the hook. Sometimes they will even say, “Satan, not God, caused this tragedy.” They think that by blaming Satan or by saying that God only allowed it, they preserve His love. But they do so at the expense of His sovereignty.
But the Bible clearly affirms that God is both loving and sovereign. You will not derive any comfort in trials by denying God’s sovereignty. True, God may use Satan to bring trials, as He did in the case of Job. But God clearly states, “I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these” (Isa. 45:6b-7). You will find comfort in trials only if you affirm both God’s absolute sovereignty and His unfailing love. Note several features of life’s storms as seen in this storm:
Storms hit suddenly and without warning.
When we lived in California, we woke up to a news station. Sometimes their morning traffic report would mention a fatal accident and I would think, “That guy left home this morning to go to work, never thinking that he had just minutes to live. His family perhaps said a perfunctory good-bye, never imagining that they would never talk to him again.” Life’s storms are like that: Right now everything is smooth sailing. In a matter of hours, without warning, you’re in the middle of a crisis.
Such a storm not only tests and develops your character; it reveals it. Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, was talking to a young missionary who was about to start work in China. “Look at this,” he said. He pounded his fist on the table. The tea cups jumped, and the tea spilled. While the startled young man was wondering what was going on, Taylor said, “When you begin your work, you will be buffeted in numerous ways. The trials will be like blows. Remember, these blows will bring out only what is in you.”
So the time to develop resources to face the sudden storms that inevitably will strike is before they hit. If you don’t spend time with the Lord in the calm of life, you won’t know how to trust Him in the storms.
Storms hit believers.
This storm hit those with Christ in their boat as well as those without Christ in their boat. Mark 4:36 records that other boats were with them. If this were a fairy tale, we might read that when the storm arose, the other boats were swamped, but the boat with Christ in it sailed as smooth as glass. The fact is, Christians are not magically exempted from the storms of life. Just because you’re in Jesus’ boat doesn’t mean that it’s going to be smooth sailing. Christians are not exempt from trials.
Some think, “Yes, that’s true. But I’m serving Christ.” They think that being committed earns them special protection from storms. But observe:
Storms hit obedient believers who are serving Christ.
In fact, this storm did not hit the disciples because they had been disobedient but, rather, because they had been obedient! Jesus said, “Let’s go over to the other side” (8:22). These men, who had committed their lives to serve Christ, obeyed. And He led them straight into a storm! And in the same way, obediently serving Christ may place you smack-dab in the middle of storms you would have avoided if you had stayed on the shore.
I have often found that the most severe times of testing have come right after I have taken a new step of obedience. Just after Marla and I returned to Dallas so that I could complete my seminary training, we were mugged at gunpoint and I had to get four stitches in my hand. While my hand was still bandaged, I slipped in the mud and cut my other hand on a thermos I was carrying. We also encountered several other trials around the same time. Shortly after we moved to California to begin in the pastorate, our six-month-old daughter, Christa, had to be hospitalized with a congenital hip problem that meant being in a body cast for two months and wearing a leg brace for several years. The very day we decided to move to Flagstaff, we learned about a major problem with our house that entailed months of difficulties. Shortly after I began here I had to deal with some major problems in the church that resulted in a lot of turmoil. The point is, being obedient to the Lord does not exempt you from storms; it often leads you right into storms! Not only did the Lord lead the disciples into this storm. Note what happened next:
This is the only incident in the Bible that mentions Jesus sleeping, and what a time to fall asleep! It would be one thing if Jesus had said, “Men, a storm is coming. Peter, you stay on the helm! John, make sure that sail is secure! James, get that gear tied down!” If Jesus had been actively involved, giving orders, telling them, “Hang in there, guys, we’re going to make it,” the storm would have been difficult, but bearable. But just when they needed Jesus’ calm leadership and assurance, where was He? Sacked out in the back of the boat, oblivious to their dire need!
Have you ever felt like that in the midst of a trial? You get into it and it seems as if the Lord checked out and left you all alone! You’re bailing like crazy, but the waves are winning. You’re about to go under, and you wonder, where is the Lord?
He’s always there, even though sometimes it seems as if He’s not. But often He waits until we are at our wit’s end so that we sense how great our need really is. But even before the disciples called on Him, Jesus was there with them in the boat, going through the storm with them. He has promised, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). As Paul triumphantly affirms, no trial can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39).
I love the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who obeyed the Lord and found themselves in a storm of a different sort, thrown into Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. As he peered into the flames, Nebuchadnezzar was astounded and said to his officials, “Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?” They answered, “Certainly, O king.” He replied, “Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!” (Dan. 3:24-25). I believe the fourth man was the Lord Jesus. He didn’t leave those faithful men alone in their trial, but went and stood with them in the flames.
Whenever you’re in a storm, even though you may think at first that the Lord is not there, He is there! The first thing we must do in the storms of life is to affirm that Jesus is Lord, even over the storms. Then,
This lesson comes through with Jesus’ question, “Where is your faith?” (8:25). If there is ever a time when it seems as if panic would be legitimate, it’s when you’re in a major storm and your boat is being swamped. And yet Jesus rebuked not only the storm, but also the disciples’ lack of faith! The fact is,
We all can fake it in calm waters. We can impress others with how together we seem to be. And, the disciples could cope with normal storms quite well. They had been in storms on this lake many other times. They were experts at handling their boat in rough waters. At first they probably thought, “No problem, we can handle it.” But this storm brought them to the end of themselves and showed them how they were trusting in themselves. Often, a crisis shows us a side of ourselves we were blind to. The Lord uses it to reveal new areas where we need to learn to trust Him. We all must come to know our weakness so that we will rely on the Lord’s strength. Storms often show us things that we don’t see in calmer times:
Storms reveal our distorted view of the problem.
The disciples excitedly cried, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” They thought they all were going to drown. But wait a minute! Who was on board with them? God’s promised Messiah! To think that God’s long-awaited Messianic kingdom could sink to the bottom of the Sea of Galilee was absurd! But in their panic, the disciples had a distorted view of the problem.
Not all fear is wrong, but Jesus rebuked the disciples because their fear was excessive. Some fear is useful because it leads us to take prudent caution for our safety. Sometimes fear makes us spring into immediate action to save our own lives or the life of a loved one who is in danger. But fear is excessive and wrong when it causes us to panic so that we are not thinking carefully in light of God’s promises. If we’re so focused on the problem that we cannot see God’s control over it, then we’re not trusting Him.
Storms reveal our distorted view of ourselves.
“Master, Master, we are perishing!” That “we” probably included Jesus, but I’m not sure that He was their uppermost concern. They weren’t saying, “Hey, guys, if we don’t get out of this storm, the Messiah will die!” First and foremost they were fearing for their own lives.
Storms have a way of exposing our self-focus. We can put on a front of caring about others until we realize that it’s going to cost us. Suddenly, it’s every man for himself! Self-pity is another sure sign that we have a distorted view of ourselves. Any time we’re feeling sorry for ourselves, we’re too focused on ourselves. We need to stop and get the big picture of what God is doing.
Storms reveal our distorted view of the Lord Jesus.
The disciples ask in awe, “Who then is this?” (8:25). That was their problem—they really didn’t realize who Jesus is. If they had known, they would not have been so amazed at what happened. They underestimated His power.
We do the same thing when we panic in a crisis. We try to solve our problem by figuring everything into the equation—except the supernatural power of Christ. Our distorted view of the problem and of ourselves clouds our vision so that we fail to see the marvelous person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although Luke does not mention it, Mark’s account tells us that the disciples (I would guess, Peter) also said, “Lord, don’t You care that we’re perishing?” In a time of severe trial, it’s easy to doubt the Lord’s loving care for us. That’s why, by faith, we must always affirm two things in our trials: God’s sovereignty and His love (1 Pet. 5:6-7).
Thus we often think that we’re trusting in the Lord until a storm hits. It reveals to us how we’re not really trusting Him.
The disciples may have protested, “We were trusting in the Lord! We called to Him for help!” But they were not really calling to Jesus in faith or He wouldn’t have rebuked them by asking, “Where is your faith?” What they needed most in this dire situation was to trust in the living God.
That’s also what we need most in our trials. Sad to say, trusting God has fallen on hard times. Many “Christian” psychologists scoff at pastors who tell people that they need to trust God, as if that is worthless advice. But trusting God in a crisis is not useless advice! It is what has sustained the saints in many horrible trials down through the centuries. If you don’t know how to trust God in the storms of life, you need to learn because we are commanded to walk by faith and to be built up in faith (Col. 2:6-7).
The better we know the Lord, the better we can trust Him.
“Who then is this?” is the crucial question. Clearly, this Jesus is fully human. He had a body that got so exhausted that He could sleep in the midst of this storm. The full humanity of Jesus Christ should be of tremendous comfort to us when we are suffering from the limitations of our bodies. “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).
But not only is our Lord fully human, He is also fully divine. He merely had to speak the word and the howling winds ceased and the surging waves were instantly as smooth as glass. Just as Jesus’ full humanity encourages us because He understands, so His full deity should encourage us because He is powerful to act on our behalf. Nothing is too difficult for the living God. Not a breath of wind or a drop of water can defy His sovereign will. The better we know Him, the better we can trust Him in our trials.
The bigger the storm, the more the Lord will be glorified when we trust Him.
We need always to keep in mind that the chief end of man is not to use God for our own happiness, but to glorify God no matter what happens to us. This storm revealed the glory of Christ in a way that would have been hidden had it not happened. The disciples got a glimpse of His majestic power, that “He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him.” The bigger the problem, the more our almighty Lord will be glorified when we trust Him.
Corrie Ten Boom, author of The Hiding Place and survivor of the German concentration camps, said that people often came up to her and said, “Corrie, my, what a great faith you have.” She would smile and respond, “No, it’s what a great God I have.” Our faith in trials should point people toward our great God.
The more we trust Him in this storm, the more we will know Him and be able to trust Him in the next storm.
The winds and the water obey Jesus without question, but we always have a choice. Sadly, we often fail to obey and trust Him. But notice that first the disciples feared the storm; then, they feared the Lord. Their fear of the storm was due to their lack of faith. Their fear of the Lord stemmed from their new awareness of His awesome power.
Faith in the Lord is not an automatic thing. It is something that we must choose to exercise, often in the face of overwhelming circumstances that seem to scream at us, “God doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t even exist or you wouldn’t be in this trial.” Faith sometimes must go back to previous situations where God has shown Himself faithful and say, “I rest there.” Often we have to go back to the history recorded in Scripture, where we read of God’s faithfulness to His people in horribly difficult situations. If you actively trust the Lord Jesus in your current trial, your faith will be strengthened to trust Him in the next storm.
I’ve heard Bible teachers say, “With Christ in the boat, you can smile at the storm.” Certainly there is a sense in which that’s true. But I don’t want to give you an overly rosy picture. We need to face squarely the fact that sometimes Jesus doesn’t calm the storm. Sometimes the boat does sink, even if we’re trusting in Jesus. John the Baptist wasn’t delivered from prison; he lost his head. Peter was miraculously delivered from prison, but James was put to death (Acts 12:1-17). So what should we do if we trust in the Lord, but the boat sinks? The miracle doesn’t come.
The answer is, “We trust in the Lord Jesus as we go under. We go down singing the doxology.” John Hus was burned at the stake for his faith, but he went out singing. Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer were burned at the stake together. As the fires were lit, Latimer cried out, “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as I trust shall never be put out!” Hudson Taylor lost his beloved wife Maria as they both sought to take the gospel to inland China. But he stood at her grave and sang, “Jesus, I am resting, resting, in the joy of what Thou art; I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart.”
Do you know Jesus in that way? If not, don’t wait until the storm hits. Seek Him now! Trust Him as your Savior, your only hope for heaven. Trust Him daily in the small problems you face. Then, whether He instantly calms the storm or whether your boat sinks, you will know peace that the world can’t know, the peace that comes from trusting in Jesus, the Lord over all of life’s storms.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Years ago a farmer from the interior of China had come to a mission compound where a doctor had removed the cataracts from his eyes. A few days after the farmer left, the doctor looked out his window and noticed the same man holding the end of a long rope. In single file behind him, holding to the rope, were several dozen blind Chinese whom the farmer had rounded up and led for miles to the doctor who had worked “miracles” on his eyes. Because his sight had been restored, he wanted others to experience the same thing! That story illustrates the message of the dramatic encounter between Jesus and Legion, the demoniac:
Those who have experienced Christ’s transforming power should proclaim it to others.
It’s a story with some strange twists in it. You would think that Jesus would deny the requests of demons and unbelievers, and grant the request of an eager follower, but He didn’t. Jesus granted the request of the demons, He agreed to the appeals of a group of unbelievers, and then He denied the entreaties of a man whose life He had transformed who wanted to follow Him! That seems backwards, doesn’t it? Why did Jesus act this way?
I believe that Jesus granted the request of the demons that He not send them out of the region and into the abyss because the final judgment of Satan and his forces is yet future. The time is coming when they will be cast into the Lake of Fire, but for now we are engaged in spiritual conflict against these forces of evil (Eph. 6:12). We don’t know for certain what happened to the demons after the pigs drowned, but I think they were free then to go trouble someone else. The water did not harm the demons.
I believe that Jesus granted the request of the local people to leave their region because His main mission at that time was to the Jews (these people were mostly Gentile) and because He will not force Himself upon those who harden their hearts against Him, especially after they have seen evidence of His mighty power.
And I believe that Jesus denied the request of the former demoniac to accompany Him because even though His primary mission at that time was to the Jews and even though these Gentiles’ hearts were opposed to Him, He knew that some of His elect among them would hear and respond. And so He told the man, “Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you” (8:39). Thus the maniac became the missionary!
Thus the lesson for us from this miracle is that all of us who have experienced Christ’s transforming power should proclaim it. But that raises two difficult questions that we must ask ourselves:
To what extent am I experiencing the transforming power of Christ? What is there in my life that is explainable only by the spiritual power of Jesus Christ? It may not be as instantaneous and dramatic as the changes in Legion. But even so, there ought to be some obvious changes due to my experience with Jesus Christ.
To what extent am I proclaiming the transforming power of Christ? Do I have “holy huddle disease”? That’s a disease that especially affects us pastors, where you surround yourself with the saints, holding hands and sharing precious verses, but you never venture out among the pagans. I believe that Jesus went out of His way to cross the Sea of Galilee in the storm for the purpose of saving Legion and of teaching the disciples about His transforming power. No sinner is beyond the saving grace of God in Christ! Our text plainly shows that...
It is interesting to compare this miracle with the one that immediately precedes it, the stilling of the storm. In that miracle, we see Christ’s power over nature; here, we see His power over the supernatural. In that one, we see Christ’s ability to tame the wild sea; here, we see His ability to tame a wild man. In that one, we see Christ giving peace in a storm; here, He gives peace in a soul.
Picture the scene: It was either at night or very early in the morning when Jesus and the disciples arrived on the other side of the lake after the storm. As they are stepping out on the beach, they hear a terrifying shriek. They look up to see this naked wild man running toward them. (Actually, there were two men according to Matthew. Apparently, one was more notorious and the other was a silent follower, but we don’t know for sure. Mark and Luke only report one, but they do not say that there was only one.) The man’s naked body was covered with scars and caked on blood, with fresh bloody wounds in some places (Mark 5:5). His uncut hair and untrimmed beard were matted and tangled. He had a wild, demented look in his eyes. He reeked of body odor. Luke does not record what the disciples did, but I can picture them scrambling back into the boat or looking for rocks and sticks to defend themselves. But Jesus stepped forward, spoke the word to the demons, and Legion was a different man. We need to understand two things about the transformation that took place:
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Jesus didn’t use some clever method to convince Legion to make a decision to accept Him. Legion didn’t decide to turn over a new leaf and try harder this time. He didn’t sign up for a 12 Step group to overcome his addiction to demons. The gospel is nothing less than the mighty power of God imparting new life to a previously dead sinner. If God does not change the heart, there is no lasting change.
Man’s efforts at transformation fall short.
The human attempt to deal with this man had been to bind him with chains (8:29). But it didn’t work. Human solutions to problems that are spiritual in nature ultimately will fail.
Margaret Sangster, the social worker, told about seeing a small boy in an urban ghetto sitting on the stairs of a tenement. The youngster had been hit by a car several months before, but his parents, fresh from Appalachia, neglected to get him proper medical attention. Although not part of her case load, she took the boy to an orthopedist and learned that through an involved series of operations the child’s body could be made normal again. She cut through the bureaucratic red tape, raised the funds, and set the process of cure in motion.
Two years later the boy came to her office. To her astonishment, he walked in without crutches, and to show the completeness of his recovery, he turned a cartwheel for her. The two embraced and when the boy left, Margaret Sangster reported that a warm glow mantled the entire office. She said to herself, “If I never accomplish anything else in my life, at least here is one young man to whom I can point where I have made a real difference!”
At that point she paused in her presentation and asked, “This was all several years ago now. Where do you think that boy is today?” Caught in the emotion of that moment, several made suggestions—a school teacher, a physician, perhaps a social worker?
There was a longer pause, and with even deeper emotion Sangster said, “No, he is in the penitentiary for one of the foulest crimes a human being can commit.” Then she said, “I was instrumental in teaching him how to walk again, but there was no one to teach him where to walk.” Man’s efforts fall short because...
All who need transformation are in Satan’s domain.
This narrative reveals that there are two types of people in Satan’s domain, who need the transforming power of Christ. There are those who are conspicuously in Satan’s domain, such as Legion. These people make you shudder and draw back from them by their very appearance. They look evil.
But there is a second type of people in this story who are just as much in Satan’s domain and who need the same transforming power of Christ. But we might be inclined to overlook them. These are not conspicuous, but camouflaged. I am referring to the people of that area who flocked out to see what had happened to Legion. Outwardly, they were decent, respectable citizens. There are three clues that these people were in Satan’s domain just as much as Legion was.
First, the demons were at home in their region. They didn’t want to be sent out of the country (Mark 5:10). Second, these people were more concerned about the loss of their swine than they were about the healing of this man (or these two men). Sure, Legion had been a nuisance to them. He was so violent that no one could go near where he was (Matt. 8:28). But if his healing meant the loss of their swine, forget it. Third, they begged Jesus to leave (Luke 8:37). What a horrible request! They had feared Legion. But they were more frightened about Jesus (8:37). He threatened them and they didn’t want Him to get too close.
These people are like the man Harry Ironside talked to one night after he had preached. He asked the man if he was saved and the man said no, but he would like to be. Ironside asked him, “Do you realize that you are a sinner?” “Yes,” the man quickly replied, “but you know, I’m not what you would call a bad sinner. In fact, I’d have to say I’m a rather good one.”
There are many people like that man. They are in Satan’s domain of darkness, but they’re decent folks. They’ve never committed a felony. They love their mates and their children. They may even go to church and believe in God. But they don’t want Him getting too close for comfort! If a preacher brings up sins like pride, greed, lust, envy, racial prejudice, and the like that step on their toes, they get real nervous and put up their defense. They’re just as much in Satan’s domain as the conspicuous sinner, but outwardly they look more respectable.
All people, apart from Christ, are in one category or the other. Paul says, “For He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13-14). The “us” included the religious Paul as well as the formerly pagan Gentiles. Every person without Christ is in Satan’s domain and needs Christ’s mighty power to deliver him.
None are too difficult for Christ to transform, but camouflaged sinners are often more difficult than the conspicuous.
We look at a story like this and say, “Wow! If Legion can be transformed, then there is hope for anybody!” Yes, there’s even hope for the respectable sinners! It takes the same saving power of Christ to transform them as it does to transform the demoniac. But they’re often the more difficult cases because they don’t see their great need. But Christianity is not a matter of dressing up a pig in the tuxedo of good works. It is a matter of God changing the nature of the pig! But in addition to Christ’s saving power, transformation also requires His teaching.
This is an inference on my part. The text does not directly state that Christ taught this man. But I believe that He did. Verse 35 reports that the man was sitting at Jesus’ feet when the local folks found him (see 10:39). It took a fair amount of time, perhaps a whole day, for the herdsmen to run off into the surrounding area and report what had happened and for the people to arrive back at the spot. I believe that Jesus was giving this man a cram course in spiritual things. I think that He taught him who God is and who He was as God’s Messiah, and what it means to live a godly life. The point is, salvation must be followed by sound doctrine so that the new convert can be transformed through the renewing of his mind. Legion, quite naturally, wanted to accompany Jesus (8:38). Who wouldn’t want to? His life dramatically had been transformed by Jesus’ power and through Jesus’ teaching. But Jesus said “No” to the man’s request. That leads to our second main lesson.
If you’ve experienced His transforming power, then you’ve got to express it. It’s at this point that many of us fail. How do we communicate the changes Christ has made (and is making) in our lives? Most of us lack the personality or gift to go out knocking on the doors of strangers to tell them about Christ. I would never take a job selling stuff door-to-door. And, apart from the erroneous theology, I would never want to be a Jehovah’s Witness! Yet, clearly, the Lord has called us all to be His witnesses. So how can we do it? There are two very normal parts to proclaiming the message that every one of us can do:
People knew this guy as a naked, wild, violent maniac. But when they went out to see him, he was sitting down, clothed, and in his right mind (8:35). There was obvious change.
Maybe you’re thinking, “But I wasn’t a naked, wild, violent maniac before I came to Christ. I was raised in the church. I trusted Him as a child. How can I show people that Christ has made a difference in my life?”
There are many ways. Our attitudes should show people that we are Christians. Do you have a cheerful, thankful heart, even in difficult times? Or, do you grumble and complain? Paul says that if we do all things without grumbling or disputing we show ourselves as lights in this crooked and perverse world (Phil. 2:15). What about your words? Do you encourage and build others up, or do you tear them down? Do you use foul language or is your speech pure? And, what about your behavior? Are you self-centered or are you always thinking about others and how you can serve them? Do you live for the same values and goals the world lives for? Do you blend in with the world or do you stand out as distinct? If you walk in reality with Jesus as your Lord every day, your life will be a witness.
There are three things to note here:
How do you go? You go with obedience and zeal.
It takes obedience. This man didn’t want to go home. He wanted to go with Jesus. Maybe he was a bit disappointed at first. But he obeyed. He had exchanged masters. Before, he served a destructive tyrant. Now he served a loving Lord. But sometimes our new Master asks us to do things we may not feel like doing. We must obey, if we want to be His disciple.
It takes zeal. Jesus said return to your house, and Legion went throughout the whole city! Mark says that he went to Decapolis, which was a region consisting of 10 towns! He was zealous to tell others about what Jesus had done for him! Sometimes those of us who have been Christians for a long while need to stop and think about how much the Lord did in saving us and to remember how desperately those who are without Christ need Him. Legion was going to witness to normal people. They had never lived naked among the tombs. But they were just as alienated from God as he had been. So he eagerly told them of their need for the Savior. We need the same obedient zeal that Legion had.
To whom do you go? Go to your house.
In other words, go back to the people who knew you before, to your family and friends, to the relationships that you already have. The New Testament pattern for evangelism is that you go back into your own circle of influence—family, friends, neighbors, job, school, common interest groups, and community contacts, and tell them what great things God has done for you.
“Yeah, but they all know me!” That’s the point! That’s why they have to see your transformed life. You go back “clothed and in your right mind”! Live Christ before them and when they ask why you’re so different, tell them!
What do you say? Tell them your story and the gospel of God’s grace.
Tell your personal testimony: “What great things God has done for you” (8:39). Tell how you met Christ, and what He has done in your life. All witnessing should have this personal element.
Explain the gospel: Who God is, who Jesus is, how we have sinned against God, what Jesus came to do as the sin-bearer. A person needs to know the basic facts of the gospel before he can intelligently respond. Part of the gospel involves telling them who Jesus is. I don’t know whether Legion fully understood the deity of Jesus yet, but Luke wants his readers to make the connection. In verse 39, Luke places the words God and Jesus emphatically at the end of the sentence to link them. The great things God had done were one and the same with the great things Jesus had done!
Emphasize grace: Every false religion in the world and every fallen sinner by instinct tries to approach God through good works. If you try hard enough and do enough, maybe God will accept you. But Christianity is not a religion of works, it is a relationship of grace. Grace means that God freely gives His salvation to those who deserve His judgment, apart from any human merit.
“But, Legion, didn’t you put on some clothes before you went to Jesus?” “No! I ran to Him just as I was, stark naked.”
“But Legion, didn’t you clean up and hide your bloody wounds before you went to Jesus?” “No! I looked hideous.”
“But Legion, didn’t you try to get rid of your demons before you went to Jesus?” “No! The demons were shrieking through my voice when I ran up to Him. He saved me just as I was, totally by His grace, not at all through anything I did.” That’s grace!
John Wesley was once riding his horse, singing a favorite hymn, when a robber accosted him with the words, “Your money or your life.” Wesley obediently emptied his pockets of the few coins he had and then invited the robber to go through his saddlebags, which were filled with books.
The disappointed robber was turning away when Wesley (who had much more presence of mind than I had when I was mugged!) called out, “Stop! I have something more to give you.”
The robber turned back and Wesley said, “My friend, you may live to regret this sort of life you’re living. If you ever do, remember this, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses from all sin.’” The robber hurried silently away and the man of God rode along, praying that the word spoken might be fixed in the robber’s conscience.
Years later, at the close of a Sunday evening service, a man stepped forward and asked to speak with Mr. Wesley. Wesley was surprised to learn that this was the man who had robbed him years before. He was now a well-to-do businessman, but, better still, he was now a child of God. God had used the words spoken that night in his conversion. Taking Wesley’s hand, he affectionately kissed it and said with deep emotion, “To you, dear sir, I owe it all.” “Nay, nay, my friend,” Wesley replied softly, “not to me, but to the precious blood of Christ which cleanses us from all sin.”
Let me close by asking you the two questions again:
To what extent are you experiencing the transforming power of Christ? Has He changed your life through His gracious gift of salvation? Is He continuing to change it as you walk with Him?
To what extent are you proclaiming the transforming power of Christ? Are you looking for opportunities with those you know to tell them of the great things God has done for you and of the great things He will do for them if they will come to Jesus just as they are?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Generally, I enjoy backpacking. It’s great to get out into God’s beautiful creation and enjoy things you just can’t see if you stay where there are roads. But there are two things about it that I hate: the bugs and not being able to take a shower. The swarms of bugs force you to coat every inch of exposed skin with bug repellent, which makes the desire for a shower even greater. I can only stand about two nights before I’m ready to wash off the bug repellent, sweat and trail dirt with a hot shower. After backpacking, a shower always feels so good!
The same is true spiritually. If you are defiled by sin, it feels great to get cleaned off, inside and out, so that you have a clear conscience before the Lord. Being truly clean before God is important not only for how it makes you feel, but also because your eternal destiny depends on it. Sin alienates us from the holy God who judges not only our behavior, but even the sinful thoughts that we all have. If we die in our sins, apart from Christ, we face His righteous judgment and wrath. So both for how it makes us feel and for our eternal standing before God, it is crucial that we understand how to be cleansed from our sin.
For those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their sin bearer, the Bible promises, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). He bore God’s wrath for us, so we do not need to fear the day of judgment. But we still need to apply the benefits of the cross to our hearts on an ongoing, daily basis so that we maintain a clear conscience. We have to bring sins of thought, word, and deed to Him and apply His cleansing blood. If we don’t do that regularly, we begin to feel pretty grungy. We all need cleansing because we all get defiled by sin.
An incident in the life of Jesus, in which He healed a woman who suffered from a hemorrhage, gives us a parable of how we can be cleansed from our sin. The lesson is simply stated:
To be cleansed, lay hold of Jesus by faith.
This story reveals three simple truths: First, that we all need cleansing; second, that Jesus has sufficient power to cleanse us; and, third, what we must do to receive His cleansing power.
This woman had suffered for 12 years from what was probably a uterine hemorrhage. It left her physically weak and uncomfortable. But the physical suffering was minor compared to the religious, social, and emotional aspects of her problem. According to the Law of Moses (Lev. 15:19-31), she was perpetually ceremonially unclean. Whoever touched her was unclean, so that even her own family had to keep their distance unless they wanted to be defiled. Whatever she lied or sat on became unclean, so that whoever touched those objects also became unclean. If her husband had relations with her, he became unclean for a week.
For a woman especially, relationships with her family and friends are the very stuff of life. In that culture, all of life revolved around the various religious feasts and celebrations at the temple, not to mention the weekly synagogue meetings. This poor woman was an outcast, cut off from her family, friends, and culture.
Not only that, but her problem had drained all of her finances. Mark 5:26 reports that she “had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse.” Luke, the physician, is a bit kinder to his profession. He simply states that she could not be healed by anyone (Luke 8:43; some manuscripts add that she had spent all her money, but omit that she had grown worse).
When Mark reports that she had endured much at the hands of many physicians, he wasn’t kidding. The Talmud proposes eleven different remedies, including drinking a goblet of wine containing a powder made from rubber, alum, and garden crocuses. Another potion was made from Persian onions cooked in wine (Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Eerdmans], 1:620). She had tried them all, but none of them had worked. And, as with doctors in our day, there was no refund if the cure didn’t work. The woman was broke.
This woman’s ceremonial defilement is a graphic picture of how sin defiles us all. It creates distance between us and God, as well as distance from our family and friends. Often, like her problem, our sin is an embarrassing sort of thing. We’d rather not discuss it or have anyone know about it. We clear our throats and try to change the subject if anyone dares ask about anything that might bring it out into the open.
Like this woman’s problem, sin is often costly. Sins such as drunkenness, drug abuse, and gambling can reduce a family to poverty and can cost a person his employment, his health, and his life. Emergency rooms are filled with victims of sin—beaten, abused, raped, stabbed, or shot because of anger, greed, and disregard for human life.
Like this woman’s disease, sin is also degenerative. Her disease was slowly killing her, draining her strength and her very lifeblood from her body. That is how sin works in the human heart, starting at first perhaps almost imperceptibly, but sapping our strength as it continues, leading us toward a slow but certain death.
And, like this woman’s illness, sin is a hopeless problem apart from the Lord. Try as we will, we cannot extricate ourselves from its tentacles. Like climbing up an icy slope, we seem to make progress for a while, but then we slip and fall back to the bottom. We may compare ourselves with others and think that we’re not so bad. But when we recognize that we must compare ourselves with God in His absolute holiness if we want to be accepted into His heaven, we despair. There is no human remedy. We are defiled by our sin; we need to be cleansed; we cannot cleanse ourselves; nothing we try can rid us of our guilt. What can we do?
We don’t know how much this woman knew about Jesus, but she was part of the multitude that followed Him in the hopes of being healed. This incident probably took place in or near Capernaum, so she probably had heard of and witnessed some of the many miracles Jesus had performed there. Perhaps she knew some who had been healed just by touching Him (Luke 6:19). So she determined that she would go and try to touch Him, thinking, “If I just touch His garments, I shall get well.” (Mark 5:28).
Jesus was teaching by the sea when a man named Jairus desperately threw himself at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come and heal his little daughter, who was at the point of death. Jesus started off, with the crowd pressing around Him. For a while, the woman despaired of getting near Him. But as she desperately tried to fight her way through the crowd, suddenly she saw Jesus just ahead of her. She reached out, grabbed the tassel on the edge of His robe, and instantly felt healing strength pulse through her body! She knew she was cured!
She had what she had come for and was ready to retreat when suddenly Jesus stopped and asked a question that seemed absurd to everyone in the crowd except for this woman: “Who is the one who touched Me?” The crowd was pressing against Him, but Jesus sensed the power that went forth from Him to heal this woman who had touched Him by faith. He didn’t ask the question to gain information, since He knew who had touched Him. He asked it to elicit her confession and to clarify for her what had taken place. It was not her touch that had cured her, but her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was not magic, but God’s power in Christ which had accomplished the cure.
Just as Jesus Christ was this woman’s only hope, because only He could cure her defiling illness, so only Jesus Christ can cleanse us of the defilement of our sin. He alone is the bridge between the holy God and our sin. When He died on the cross, God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Just as this woman was instantly cured, so all who come to Christ in faith are instantly cleansed of their sin. This incident shows us that …
He is sufficient in power. Even though power went forth from Him, it did not drain or exhaust His supply. He had just stilled the raging storm and He had commanded the demons to depart from Legion. He would shortly raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead. And yet His power was not drained. He has unlimited power to save anyone who will come to Him in faith.
He is sufficient in holiness. He had just been with two demoniacs who inhabited the tombs. This contact would be defiling to a normal Jew. This defiled woman touched Him, which should have rendered Him unclean. He would momentarily touch the hand of Jairus’ dead daughter, another defiling act. Yet none of this defiled Jesus or He could not have performed these mighty deeds.
You can come to Jesus with all of your sin and lay hold of Him by faith. Instead of defiling Him with your sin, His holiness and healing will be instantly imparted to you. He has saved those whom the world would judge to be the worst of sinners, with no drain on His mighty power and no smudge on His absolute holiness. But perhaps you fear coming to One so powerful and so holy. Then note:
He was in a hurry to get to Jairus’ dying daughter, yet He had time to stop and deal with this one needy woman. He did not scold her for the interruption. He didn’t upbraid her for her years of seeking human solutions to her problem. Nor was His purpose in calling attention to her to embarrass her publicly, although no doubt she was at first a bit uncomfortable. He spoke to her with tenderness, addressing her as “Daughter.” He spoke words of assurance and comfort, to confirm her faith and her healing, lest she go away unclear about what had happened. Archbishop Trench explains, “This woman would have borne away a maimed blessing, hardly a blessing at all, had she been suffered to bear it away in secret and unacknowledged, and without being brought into any personal communion with her Healer” (Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord [Baker], p. 118).
Whatever your problem, however great your sin, you can come to Jesus and know that He will treat you with compassion and kindness. As Isaiah 42:3 prophesied of Jesus, “A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish” (see Matt. 12:20). Like a skillful doctor, He may have to wound in order to heal. But He always does it tenderly. He welcomes every sinner who comes to Him to cleanse his dirty wounds.
Because Jesus is the sufficient Savior, you can know that He has adequate power to cleanse your sin. Because He is the sympathetic Savior, He will treat you with gentleness and understanding. You can know for sure that if you come to Him in faith, He will instantly forgive all of your sins, because He has promised it. You will be cleansed of all defilement if you lay hold of Jesus by faith. Let’s explore what that means:
By looking at this woman’s experience we learn five things about what it means to lay hold of Jesus by faith:
For 12 years, this woman had aggressively sought a cure for her illness. She had been to every quack she had heard about. She had tried every cure her friends suggested, no matter how troublesome or distasteful. She had spent every dime. She was actively doing all she could to find a remedy and she would not quit until she obtained the cure she was after. She was not put off by the large crowd that kept her from getting near to Jesus. She was not bothered by the fact that she would make everyone she touched unclean. She elbowed her way through. She didn’t worry about the fact that Jairus’ daughter was dying and that Jesus was hurrying to a life or death mission. She persisted with her goal.
A few years ago a pastor friend of mine wasn’t feeling well. He thought it was just the flu, so he didn’t do anything about it. But when he started feeling much worse, he went to the doctor and found out he had cancer. Once he knew how serious his condition was, he started fighting it with everything available.
Like my friend, many are oblivious to the cancer of sin and death spreading through their bodies. In some cases, they are unaware of the enormity of their guilt before God. Others ignore it and hope for the best. But you won’t be cleansed of your sin if you do not actively seek the cure. The faith that saves actively seeks the Lord: “Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and He will have compassion on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isa. 55:6-7).
The best thing that happened to this woman was when she ran out of money without being cured. Then her only hope was to come to the One who heals without money or cost. As long as there are human remedies, we will try them. If we think that our good works can cleanse us, we’ll keep on working. But when we realize that Jesus is the only way we can be cleansed, we will be driven to rely on Him alone. Like Peter when he began to sink beneath the waves, we will cry, “Save me, Lord, or I perish!” The Lord delights to respond to such a cry of faith.
This woman had tried some difficult, bitter and expensive remedies. But this was easy and free! There were no bitter potions to drink. She didn’t have to apply the medicine three times a day for the next month. The disciples weren’t there collecting the fee. She touched Jesus by faith and she was instantly healed.
Many think that the more bitter the pill, the better the remedy. They stumble over the gospel because it is too simple, too free. Tell people that to be right with God they must crawl on their knees over broken glass, or repeat prayers every day until they die, or add their merits and good deeds to what Christ has done, and they will do it. But tell them, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved,” and they say, “No, that’s too simple.”
The problem is, faith in Jesus Christ is an affront to their pride. There’s no human glory in such a simple remedy. We want to do something difficult to earn salvation. But God’s way is simple and free: Put your faith in the Lord Jesus.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “I know that I am a sinner and I would like to know that all my sins were forgiven. You’re saying that all I have to do is trust Jesus. But I don’t have enough faith.” There’s good news even for you:
This woman’s faith was probably tinged with a bit of superstition. She thought that there was some magic power conveyed by touching Jesus’ garments. Her faith was self-centered. She came to Him only for the cure she wanted, and she would have been content to go away with nothing more. Her faith was quite ignorant. She didn’t know much theology. But the Lord took her weak, misguided faith, healed her on that basis, and sought to develop and strengthen it from there.
How much faith does it take to be cleansed from your sins? Thankfully, not much! Salvation depends on the strength of the Savior more than on the strength of our faith. When Jesus told her that her faith had saved her, He meant to clarify that it was not magic or superstition, but rather faith that was the means of God’s blessings coming to her through Christ. Faith is merely the channel, weak though it is, through which God works. But it is Christ, the object of our faith, not our faith itself, which cleanses us.
Say we were hiking in the woods when a forest fire began behind us. Strong winds were blowing it toward us faster than we could run. In a matter of minutes we would perish unless we could somehow get to a place of safety. Suddenly we come to a wide, deep gorge, spanned by a footbridge. If we cross the bridge, we will be safe. If we stay where we are, we will die in the flames.
How much faith does it take to get you to go across that bridge? You probably wouldn’t do engineering studies to make sure that the bridge was sound. You might hesitate if the bridge was rickety. But what if the bridge looked like the Golden Gate? Trucks and cars were rumbling over it. What kind of faith do you need to walk across a structure that is so obviously solid, especially when you are fleeing the rapidly approaching flames behind you?
Did your great faith save you? Not at all! It only took enough faith for you to go across the bridge, knowing that you would perish if you didn’t. If that bridge had been faulty, you would have plunged to your death no matter how great your faith. But if the bridge is solid, then weak faith is all it takes to get you across. The strength of your faith is not the real issue, but rather the strength of the bridge. Jesus Christ is mighty to save all who flee to Him.
It’s interesting that with Jairus and his wife, Jesus told them not to tell anyone about His raising their daughter from the dead, although it could scarcely be concealed. But with this woman who would rather hide her embarrassing condition, Jesus singles her out in front of the crowd and makes her confess what had happened. I believe Jesus asked Jairus and his wife to conceal what had happened because He didn’t want to pander to the shallow miracle-seekers. But He made this woman confess her faith and healing for several reasons.
As I mentioned, He did it for her sake. He wanted her to realize that it was faith in Him, not magic, that had cured her. He wanted her to be brought into personal communion with Him. He wanted her friends to know that she had been healed, so that she would be accepted back into the social and religious circles. And, He wanted her confession to bolster the sagging faith of Jairus, whose 12-year-old daughter was near death. If Jesus had the power to cure this woman’s 12-year-old disease, He could raise Jairus’ 12-year-old daughter.
If you have experienced Jesus’ cleansing of your sins, He wants you to confess it in public baptism. The waters of baptism symbolize the complete cleansing that Jesus works in your soul. For His name’s sake, for your sake, and for the sake of others who need their faith strengthened, every believer should be baptized to confess that you have been cleansed through faith in Christ.
Like this woman with the hemorrhage, we all have been defiled by sin. We must be cleansed or we can never spend eternity in the presence of a holy God. Only Jesus can cleanse us through His death on the cross. We must lay hold of Him by faith as she did that day.
Don’t be put off by those around you. Many in the crowd touched Jesus that day and weren’t healed, but this woman didn’t let that stop her. Don’t fear that your weak faith is not enough. Jesus will accept it and work to strengthen it. Don’t think about anything except that your sin has defiled you and that you desperately need what only Jesus offers, complete cleansing from your sin. Fear only that He will pass by this morning on His way to healing others and you will not touch Him and be saved. Weak faith is enough to lay hold of His mercy, but indifference or hesitation can result in the ruin of your soul. If you lay hold of Jesus by faith, you will hear His assuring words, “Your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998 All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
“Your daughter has died. Do not trouble the Teacher anymore.” I can’t imagine hearing anything more fearful than those words! I admit that my greatest fear is that one of my children will die. Most parents probably share that fear with me. I would much rather die myself than to have any of my children die.
What parent has not sat up at 3 a.m. with a sick child, praying that the fever would break and that the child would recover? What parent has not driven anxiously to the emergency room with a wounded or severely sick child, praying all the way that God would spare the child’s life? Our hopes for the future are bound up with our children and their children. If they die, hope dies. The future looks bleak without them.
Because of this strong parental love, all of us who are parents can identify with the distraught father, Jairus, who came to Jesus on behalf of his dying daughter. Luke tells us that she was his only daughter and that she was 12 years old. I have had the joy of having two 12-year-old daughters. A girl at 12 is like a rosebud, just beginning to open into a beautiful flower. She’s still a little girl, yet she is beginning to develop into a young woman. Every father delights to watch the wonder of that flower unfold.
But Jairus and his wife watched in horror as their little rosebud began to wilt and die. We don’t know what the illness was or how long it had gone on, but it was obvious that she was not getting better. She was at the point of death. For days now, Jairus’ wife had been saying to him, “You know, honey, this new teacher, Jesus, has been healing many. Why don’t you go and see if He would come heal our little girl.”
“I know He has healed many,” Jairus responded. “But you know how opposed our leaders are to Him. With my position as the leader of the synagogue, I just can’t go to Jesus.”
“I understand,” his wife replied, “but you know how He healed the son of the nobleman from our city. Jesus was in Cana at the time and He just spoke the word and the boy was healed here in Capernaum at that same hour [see John 4:46-54]. And He healed the centurion’s servant here in the same way [Matt. 8:5-13].”
“I know,” said Jairus, “but neither of them holds the position I do in the synagogue. I’m going to take a lot of heat from the rabbis if I go to Jesus. I could even lose my position!”
But finally, Jairus knew that he had no other choice. Either he went to Jesus with the hope that his daughter could be healed, or she would die. So off he went, leaving his wife at the girl’s bedside. In desperation, he threw himself down before Jesus and begged Him to come and lay His hand on his daughter that she might get well and live.
Jesus started off with the anxious father, but then He stopped to deal with the woman who had touched His garment and had been healed of her hemorrhage. As the precious minutes ticked away, some friends arrived from Jairus’ house who spoke those fearful words, “Your daughter has died; do not trouble the Teacher anymore.” Jairus’ heart sank! His daughter was gone! But Jesus overheard them and told him, “Do not be afraid any longer; only believe, and she shall be made well.” Jesus went to Jairus’ home, put out the noisy scoffers, and took Jairus, his wife, and Peter, James, and John with Him into the girl’s room. He took the dead girl’s hand, said, “Child, arise,” and to everyone’s astonishment, she got up immediately! Clearly, it was a lesson in faith for Jairus and his wife, for the disciples, and for us:
In fearful situations we must overcome hindrances to faith and put our trust in Jesus.
Sooner or later, we all face these fearful situations where we don’t know what to do. The bottom suddenly drops out from under us and we are overwhelmed. Such situations are never fun, but Jairus’ story shows us that …
There were at least three benefits to Jairus that apply to us:
It’s easy to drift off course in life and to spend our time in things that aren’t in line with our priorities, if we were to stop and think about it. But we don’t stop and think about it until a crisis like this brings us up short. As a synagogue ruler, Jairus was responsible for the maintenance of the building and for arranging the services. It was a position of status given only to those who had money and prestige. I can’t say for sure, but Jairus may have been a man who was over-committed to outside interests. But all of his success and prestige in the community suddenly paled in significance when he was faced with the loss of his only daughter.
Worldly success doesn’t insulate anyone from tragedy and death. It may afford a person access to the best medical treatment available. But doctors can only do so much. Every person must be ready to face death for himself and his loved ones. When it stares us in the face, we’re reminded that love for God and for others is the only thing worth living for.
When our daughter, Joy, was nine, we narrowly missed losing her when she fell out of a tree and barely missed landing on a rock that would have killed her. As it was, she had to have dozens of stitches in her arm. I have always deeply valued each of our children, so my priorities were not out of line. But then and even now, when I see the scars on her arm, my priorities come into focus. Becoming a “successful” pastor in the eyes of the Christian world isn’t my priority; being a faithful husband and father who imparts a love for God to my family is my priority.
I don’t know if the male ego was bent in the same direction in first century Israel as it is in our day. But in our culture, most men tend to be “macho.” We don’t like to admit that we’re weak and needy. We like to think that we’re tough, in command of every situation. You see it when it comes to stopping to ask directions. The wife says, “Let’s pull into this service station and ask how to get there.” He says, “I’ll find it, dear. Just relax!” Sure enough, two hours later, they finally find it!
But this fearful situation stripped Jairus of any pride. He fell at Jesus’ feet, totally helpless. It wasn’t a dignified place for a synagogue ruler to be. He probably got his nice robe dirty. But he didn’t care. He knew he needed Jesus. He was willing to admit his need and be humbled, even in public.
That’s what gives the Lord the opportunity to prove Himself mighty on our behalf! If we protect our pride and come to Jesus and say, “Lord, I’ve almost got the situation under control, but I could use a little advice from You,” He is robbed of His glory. But when we come and cast ourselves at Jesus’ feet and say, “Lord, You must do it or there is no hope,” He is glorified and others are drawn to put their trust in Him. Hudson Taylor, the great pioneer missionary, used to say that when God wanted to open inland China to the gospel, He looked around until He found a man weak enough for the task. Fearful situations strip away our pride and let the Lord prove Himself mighty.
Necessity is not only the mother of invention; it’s also the mother of faith. We don’t trust God as we should until we are forced to trust Him. There is nothing that drives us to desperation and fear like the threat of losing a child. But our fear can be God’s opportunity if we trust in Him.
Someone has said that we hang the heaviest weights by the thinnest wires. We put our hopes on this life, which is so tentative. We live and plan our lives as if death is a far-distant thing, something we need not think about until we’re in our eighties. But that which matters most to us can be taken quickly and without warning. When we stare death in the face, be it our own or the death of a loved one, we are suddenly reminded that life is a vapor and that we must be right with God.
Extreme necessity often drives a person to Jesus who wouldn’t come under less dire circumstances. Jairus had a position of prominence. He needed to maintain good relations with the Jewish leaders. Jesus wasn’t their most popular subject at the moment. In fact, they were plotting how they could kill Him (Mark 3:6). Chances are, Jairus wouldn’t have risked their disfavor by coming to Jesus if he didn’t have to. But his dying daughter forced him to come and trust in Jesus. This crisis proved to be of great benefit to him, not only in the healing of his daughter, but by giving birth to his faith in Christ, which meant eternal life.
Some of you face fearful situations today—a difficult marriage, a rebellious child, a personal health problem, the loss of a job or a financial setback. Whatever your fearful situation, it can be of great benefit if you let it clarify your priorities, strip away your pride, and drive you to trust in Jesus so that He can be glorified through it. But trusting Him isn’t easy:
When Jairus came to Jesus, he believed that Jesus could heal his daughter. But there were several hindrances or hurdles that Jairus had to overcome. I’ve already mentioned the hindrance of public opinion. What would the rabbis and others think of this synagogue ruler bowing before Jesus? There was also the hindrance of his own pride and reputation, which he would have felt the need to protect.
He also had to overcome the hindrance of interruptions, as this woman interrupted Jesus on His way to Jairus’ house. Jairus must have thought, “Why did this woman have to touch Jesus now, of all times? Let her touch Him tomorrow! My daughter is dying! Every second matters!”
Then his worst fears were realized as his friends came to tell him that his daughter had already died. That’s another hindrance to faith: Well-meaning, but misguided doomsayers who discourage us from clinging to the only source of hope. What they say may be true—Jairus’ daughter was dead. But they never add the mighty power of Jesus into their calculations. With Him there is hope even when human hope is lost!
With Jesus’ help, Jairus managed to hang on past that hindrance. But when they arrived at his house, he faced another. The house was already filled with professional mourners. Jewish custom demanded that even the poorest man hire a minimum of two flute players and one mourner in the event of a wife’s death. A man of Jairus’ position would have more. These people would perform a dance of death in which they swayed rhythmically with their hair hanging down. They gradually increased their mournful lament and the wild movement of their bodies until they worked themselves into a frenzy. That was the scene that greeted Jairus and Jesus as they came into the house.
Jesus quieted them and said, “Stop weeping, for she has not died, but is asleep” (8:52). The mourners began scoffing and laughing at Jesus because they knew that the girl had died. What did this man who just arrived on the scene and who hadn’t yet seen the girl know? Jairus was faced with another hindrance to his faith: Did he believe Jesus or these mockers who had the facts on their side?
Jesus’ words have led some to say that the girl wasn’t really dead, but just in a coma. But Luke makes it clear that the girl was dead (8:53, 55, “her spirit returned”). Why, then, did Jesus say that she was asleep? His words were a parable with one meaning for those who believed in Him and another meaning for those who scoffed. For those who believed, there was the hope that she would be awakened. In Jesus’ presence, death was only temporary, like sleep. But for those who scoffed, Jesus was a simpleton who didn’t know what He was talking about. He didn’t know as much as they did. They were confirmed in their unbelief. Jesus put them out and later gave strict orders to Jairus and his wife not to make known how He had raised their daughter back to life. To those who had, more was given; to those who did not have, even what little they had was taken away.
When we face fearful situations, believing in Jesus is not easy. We will face hindrances and setbacks which can shake our confidence in Him. The world will often laugh at us and say, “What a fool to trust in Jesus! We have the facts on our side.” But we must overcome these hindrances and cling to our Savior. Just as He called Jairus to faith in the face of fear, so He calls us.
I love the way that Jesus encouraged and nurtured Jairus’ weak faith in this crisis. He does the same with us today. Note these four ways Jesus encourages us to trust Him in fearful times:
Jairus believed in Jesus, but it wasn’t an especially strong faith. The nobleman from Capernaum had believed that Jesus’ word spoken in Cana would heal his son from that distance. The centurion from Capernaum believed that Jesus could heal his servant by speaking the word without entering his house. But Jairus didn’t go and plead, “Speak the word and my daughter will get well.” He asked Jesus to come and lay His hands on her. It was a weak faith in comparison to the others, but Jesus accepted it and worked with Jairus from that point.
The Lord Jesus is so gracious! He doesn’t refuse to work with you unless your faith is perfect. You may have to cry out, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). Come to Jesus wherever you’re at, cast yourself upon Him, doubts and all, and He will begin the process of perfecting His good work in you.
Jesus started to go with Jairus, but then got interrupted by this woman with the hemorrhage. This was a hindrance to Jairus’ faith, in that while Jesus was dealing with her, word came that Jairus’ daughter had died. But it also served to strengthen his faith, as he saw Jesus’ power heal this needy woman. She had been 12 years in her affliction, the same number of years that Jairus’ daughter had lived. When Jesus called the woman “daughter,” He may have said it partially for Jairus’ benefit. In effect He was saying, “Jairus, this woman is My daughter who has been unclean for 12 years; I must heal her, too! What I do for her, I can do for your daughter.”
Jairus was put on hold while Jesus answered the call of this woman. Sometimes God puts us on hold. Our prayers don’t seem to be getting through. When that happens, it’s easy to think, “What’s going on? Why isn’t God answering my prayers?” But then we hear of how He has answered someone else’s prayers, and we’re encouraged. He can do for me what He did for that person!
When word came that his daughter had died, Jairus’ face must have reflected fear and panic. But Jesus quickly and tenderly calmed him: “Don’t be afraid; just trust Me” (8:50, Living Bible).
Notice how tenderly Jesus dealt with the little girl. He took the dead girl’s hand, a defiling act for a Jew. But Jesus could not be defiled by death. His touch communicated that He cared for her. Then He spoke tenderly to her, “Child, arise.” Then Jesus told the exuberant parents to give her something to eat! In all of the excitement, that practical matter could easily be overlooked. Jesus tenderly cares for the whole person.
Doesn’t this glimpse of Jesus’ tenderness make you want to trust Him! Like a father helping his youngster learn to ride a bike, Jesus comes alongside and cheers, “Attaway! Keep going! You’re doing great!” If we fall and skin our knee, He tenderly cleans and bandages it and helps us get up and start over again.
For Jesus, raising the dead was as easy as raising a sleeping child would be for us. He merely spoke the word and the dead girl came to life. Each time Jesus raised the dead, He did it by speaking: To the widow of Nain’s son, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” (Luke 7:14). To Lazarus, “Lazarus, come forth!” (John 11:43). Jesus said, “An hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear [My] voice and shall come forth,” some to eternal life, others to judgment (John 5:28). What a claim! On that coming day, His voice will cause bodies decomposed for centuries to be resurrected! Even now He speaks to those who are spiritually dead and imparts new life to them by His grace (John 5:25-26)!
Because Jesus is powerful over death, we can trust Him! John Calvin said, tongue in cheek, “There is no room to fear that [your] faith will be more extensive than the boundless power of God.... Our faith, however large, will never embrace the hundredth part of the divine goodness” (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker reprint], Harmony of the Evangelists, 1:414). No matter how fearful the situation, Jesus wants us to trust Him. He may or may not deliver our loved ones or us from death. But even if He does not, we can trust His mighty power and know that one day He will speak the word and all we who have trusted in Him will be gathered with Him, triumphant over sin and death.
The great Bible teacher, G. Campbell Morgan, lost his firstborn daughter. Forty years later, preaching on the story of Jairus, he said,
I can hardly speak of this matter without becoming personal and reminiscent, remembering a time forty years ago when my own first lassie lay at the point of death, dying. I called for Him then, and He came, and surely said to our troubled hearts, “Fear not, believe only.” He did not say, “She shall be made whole.” She was not made whole on the earthly plane. She passed away into the life beyond. He did say to her, “Talitha, cumi,” “little lamb, arise”; but in her case, that did not mean, stay on the earth level. It meant that He needed her, and He took her to be with Himself. She has been with Him for all those years, as we measure time here, and I have missed her every day; but His word, “Believe only,” has been the strength of the passing years. (Jill Morgan, A Man of the Word [Baker], pp. 82-83.)
However fearful your situation, Jesus’ word is for you: “Don’t fear, just trust Me.” He wants you to move from fear to faith in Him. Jesus is the only One who can calm our fears, because He alone has conquered death. On another occasion He said, “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3).
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
One of the greatest privileges God has entrusted to us is that we have been chosen to carry on the work that Jesus Christ came to this earth to accomplish. Just before He ascended, He told His disciples, “You shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). We are here today as Christians because someone in the chain was faithful to tell us of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Although bearing witness for Christ is one of our greatest privileges, it is not an area where most believers feel strong. I have often thought that God could have chosen a more efficient method of spreading the gospel than entrusting it to the likes of me! He could have picked the angels to proclaim the good news, and it would have gotten done much more quickly. Jesus Himself could have returned to earth to visit a different people group every month and single-handedly He would have done a much better job than the church has done. But the fact is, He chose us to proclaim the good news. The very fact that His church is still going in spite of us is a testimony to His grace and power.
Our text records the first instance of the disciples going out under Jesus’ command to preach the gospel. Up till now, they had watched Him do it, but now He sends them out to proclaim the kingdom of God. We would be mistaken if we took these verses as normative for all believers or even for all those who are called to preach. It was a unique situation and Jesus gave unique instructions which He later modified (Luke 22:35-36). But even so, there are some principles here that we can apply as we seek to proclaim the good news of Christ as He has commanded us to do.
I am tying together two sections here. Verses 1-6 record the mission of the twelve; verses 7-9 report Herod’s response to their mission. The other gospels use this occasion to go into more detail about the martyrdom of John the Baptist, but Luke barely mentions it in passing. Rather, he focuses on Herod’s perplexed question regarding Jesus, “Who is this man about whom I hear such things?” (9:9). For people to believe in Jesus Christ, they must understand who He is. When they do understand who He is and believe in Him, then they must proclaim Him to others so that they have the opportunity to be saved and not to come into judgment.
Because of who Jesus is, we must proclaim the good news of His kingdom.
There are two questions to explore: Who is Jesus? And, what are we to do in light of that?
The matter of Jesus’ identity has been a crucial one in Luke right from the beginning. The angel announced to Mary that her offspring, conceived in her by the Holy Spirit, would be the Son of God (1:35). At His birth, the angels proclaimed that the one born was the “Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (2:11). Simeon and Anna both bore witness to the fact that this child was the Lord’s Christ, the Savior (2:26, 30, 38). John the Baptist testified that he himself was not the Christ, and that he was not fit to untie the thong of Jesus’ sandals because Jesus was far mightier than he (3:16).
At the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, even the demons recognized that He is “the Holy One of God” and “the Son of God” (4:34, 41). When Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sins, the Pharisees grumbled, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” (5:21). Later, when John the Baptist was wavering in faith while in prison, he sent messengers asking, “Are You the One who is coming, or do we look for someone else?” (7:19). Jesus sent back the reply, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me” (7:22, 23).
Later, when Jesus was having dinner with the Pharisee and He forgave the sins of the woman who anointed His feet, the other guests grumbled, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” (7:49). After Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples fearfully asked, “Who then is this, the He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?” (8:25). Later, Jesus will ask the twelve, “Who do the multitudes say that I am?” (9:18); and, “But who do you say that I am?” resulting in Peter’s confession, “The Christ of God” (9:20). The ultimate confession comes from God the Father, who testified at Jesus’ baptism, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased” (3:22); and, again at His transfiguration, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!” (9:35).
So Herod was asking the right question, “Who is this man?” But, Herod was not asking the question with a view to repentance, but only out of his perplexity. His guilty conscience was nagging him about putting the righteous John to death, and now he feared that perhaps John had come back to life to haunt him. But as we examine the context, we learn three things about Jesus as Lord:
Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all the demons, and to heal diseases (9:1). Power is the force or ability to do something; authority is the right to use that power. It is one thing for a person to have power over demonic forces and power to heal, but quite another thing to be able to confer this power on others. Jesus has that power and authority.
Furthermore, Jesus had the authority to summon and send out these men to do His bidding. They did not vote on the matter or discuss whether His plan was a good one. They did not negotiate the terms in order to get the best contract. Jesus commanded and they obeyed. Jesus sent them out to do two things: “To proclaim the kingdom of God, and to perform healing” (9:2). The two tasks were not of equal importance. Preaching the kingdom of God was paramount; the healings were to authenticate the message. They were proclaiming that in Jesus, the kingdom of God had come in fulfillment of God’s promises through the prophets. The miracles that Jesus and the twelve performed gave assurance to the people that He was indeed the promised one.
In our day, there are segments of the church that argue that we are to emphasize divine healing along with the gospel. The late John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement, claimed that the “greater works” that Jesus predicted that His followers would do after receiving the Holy Spirit (John 14:12) include signs and wonders. If we are not regularly seeing God use us to perform miracles, then we are not proclaiming the gospel as we ought.
What shall we say to this? First, God is just as able to perform miracles through His servants today as He always has been. We must be careful not to limit God’s power because of our unbelief (Mark 6:5, 6). But, having said that, we must also be careful to understand the place of miracles in God’s working. While there are miracles reported throughout the Bible, they mainly occur in clusters around the time of the exodus, during the ministries of Elijah and Elisha, and during the time of Christ and the apostles. The purpose of those increased miracles was to authenticate the word of God or His messengers during critical times in the history of His people. But once the purpose for the miracles had been accomplished, the miracles decreased in frequency.
For example, the Book of Hebrews was written to a second-generation church of mostly Jewish Christians who were tempted to go back to Judaism. The author is trying to convince them of the superiority of Jesus. In Hebrews 2:3-4, he states, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.” He is saying that the truth of the gospel was authenticated by these miracles performed by those who had been with Jesus, namely, the apostles.
But—here’s the point—if signs and wonders were still common in the church, why didn’t he appeal to their current experience? It would have been a much stronger argument to appeal to their common experience of miracles as a proof of Christianity than to appeal to miracles they had not even seen. Or, if the Hebrews were not experiencing such miracles, but should have been, he would have exhorted them to believe God for such things in their midst. But apparently such miracles had generally ceased. His appeal was to the authenticating nature of such signs as performed by the apostles and reported to these people as evidence of the true identity of Jesus as both Lord and Christ.
Another reason I do not believe that we should be emphasizing signs and wonders when we proclaim the gospel is that both Jesus and Paul censured those who sought for such things. The Jews saw Jesus multiply the loaves and fishes and yet they challenged Him to perform more signs (John 6:2, 26, 30). But they would not submit to Him or believe in Him. Paul said, “The Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:22-24).
The real issue of the gospel is sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8). People can gawk at miracles, but if they are not convicted about their sin and need for a Savior, they will not be saved from God’s judgment. The miracles that Christ and the apostles performed authenticate Jesus as the promised Savior. While we can pray that God would graciously heal a person of some disease, and He may do it miraculously, our emphasis should be on the person’s need of a Savior from sin. Jesus is the powerful Lord who can save every person who believes in Him.
Jesus sends His disciples out on this mission with instructions that they should take nothing for their journey. Rather, God would provide for their needs through the generosity of those to whom they ministered. Later, Jesus refers back to this incident and comments on how they did not lack anything (22:35-36). But He then changes the instruction and tells them to take along money and other provisions. Why the change? Apparently, here Jesus was concerned both about the urgency of their going immediately and the vital lesson they needed to learn about trusting God to provide for their basic needs. That lesson is further underscored in the next incident, the feeding of the 5,000.
While Jesus’ instructions to the twelve on this occasion are not to be applied literally, there is a valid principle here for all of His followers, namely, that our focus in life should not be on acquiring the world’s junk, but on spreading the message of God’s kingdom. In other words, “Seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and all these things [our basic needs] will be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33). Our focus should be on ministry, not on things. If it is, we can trust Him to provide for our needs (not all our wants).
Before I leave this point, I need to comment briefly on a difficult harmonistic problem. When you compare the parallel accounts (Matt. 10:9-10; Mark 6:8-9), you discover that in Matthew, Jesus prohibits taking sandals (also mentioned in Luke 22:35) whereas in Mark He allows sandals. But in Matthew and Luke, Jesus prohibits taking a staff, whereas in Mark He permits taking a staff. How do we solve this?
To be honest, no thoroughly satisfying answer has been proposed. Perhaps the best answer is that Jesus was saying that the disciples should not take an extra pair of sandals or an extra staff. It would have been unlikely for anyone to travel barefoot over the rocky terrain of Israel. And, it would be assumed that you always took a single staff on a journey. So each account agrees that Jesus was making the point, “Just go as you are; don’t stop to load up with extra provisions.” The problem with this view is why anyone would need two staffs. The answer is that Jesus was speaking somewhat hyperbolically and graphically to make the point that no extra provisions were to be taken. The point was, “travel light and depend on God” (see Darrell Bock, Luke [Baker], 1:815-816).
So our text shows Jesus to be the powerful Lord and the providing Lord. Thirdly,
The multitudes were still not clear on who Jesus was but, at the very least, they all knew that a great prophet had arisen in Israel. Some thought that John the Baptist had risen from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of old had risen again (see 9:19). As Peter will correctly confess, Jesus is more than any of these; He is the Christ (= Anointed One, Messiah) of God (9:20).
But in a true sense, Jesus was also the prophet par excellence, the one predicted by Moses (Deut. 18:15). As the prophet above all of God’s prophets, Jesus can rightly pronounce God’s judgment on those who reject Him. Thus He instructs the twelve to shake the dust off their feet in witness against any village that rejected their message about God’s kingdom (9:5). When the Jews of that day traveled in heathen territory, they would shake the dust off their feet as soon as they entered Jewish territory, so as not to contaminate the land. By doing this, the twelve were giving a prophetic demonstration that the village was as pagan as the Gentiles were. It was a pronouncement that they had rejected God’s good news and that their blood was on their own heads (see Acts 13:51).
The point is this: The issue on judgment day will be, what have you done with the Lord Jesus Christ? He is the only way to God. If you receive Him as Savior and Lord, you pass from death to life and you will not enter into judgment. If you reject Him, you remain under God’s righteous condemnation. Thus to reject the message about Jesus was and still is a serious matter! Because Jesus is Lord, a person ignores or rejects Him at his own peril.
The disciples proclaimed “the kingdom of God” (9:2), which is also called “the gospel” (9:6). The kingdom refers to the fact that God is King or Sovereign and that people must submit to His rule over their lives. The gospel is that if anyone will turn from his sins (see parallel, “repent,” in Mark 6:12) and submit to Jesus as King, God will graciously forgive his sins and welcome him into His kingdom. But the good news also contains bad news. As Jesus here implies, some will not submit themselves to His rule. For these, the sober action of shaking the dust from their feet signals that they had rejected the reign of God and thus could only await His impending judgment. Thus, as Paul put it, the same message is an aroma of death to some, but of life to others (2 Cor. 2:15-16).
I wonder if the people in these towns realized the tremendous fork in the road of life that stared them in the face when the disciples passed through proclaiming the kingdom of God. If they refused the offer, the opportunity was gone and they were left under judgment. If they welcomed the offer, they were forever different, under God’s rule, looking ahead to the day when they would see the King and be with Him for eternity.
The gospel we proclaim is the greatest news in the world. If a sinner responds to it by trusting in Jesus as Savior and Lord, he is changed for time and eternity! The gospel was and still is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. You never know how far your witness for Christ will reach. None of the twelve spoke directly to Herod, but their message still got to him. Although he did not respond in faith, God will use the disciples’ witness to hold Herod accountable when he stands before the great white throne. Herod had the authority to behead John, but he couldn’t stop the powerful spread of the gospel.
The disciples went out proclaiming the kingdom (9:1-6) and the result was that Herod and the multitudes were talking about who Jesus was (9:7-9). That’s how it should be: when we bear witness for Christ: people should either understand or else be haunted by the question, “Who is this man, Jesus?” While you may have to answer some basic questions and objections, don’t get sidetracked on peripheral matters. Direct people to who Jesus is and to what He did on the cross. Encourage them to read the gospel accounts. As John 20:31 explains, he wrote his gospel “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” Thus, we proclaim to people the good news of God’s kingdom rule in the person of Jesus the Messiah.
The battle we fight is primarily spiritual, and so we must pray that God will deliver people from Satan’s domain of darkness. God must open their eyes to the truth of the gospel (2 Cor. 4:4). In the Great Commission, Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:18-19). “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses” (Acts 1:8). Relying on His authority and power, we tell people about the saving grace to be found at the cross of Jesus Christ.
Our lives must back up our message. The disciples were common men whose lives were different because of Jesus. When they went, they lived simply and stayed in homes. The people could see that their lives were in line with the message they proclaimed. If people see the reality of Christ in us, they will be more inclined to listen to our message. The disciples not only preached, but also healed in Jesus’ name. This means also that we must perform deeds of mercy that minister to the whole person. Certainly we can and should pray that God would heal the illness of the one with whom we are sharing the gospel. If they need basic medical care, we should try to provide it. If they need food and shelter, we should help the person obtain these things. But every person’s greatest need is not physical; it is spiritual. If we provide for the person’s physical needs but neglect the spiritual, they still will die and face God’s judgment. Each person desperately needs to know Jesus Christ as Savior.
When I was a boy, I used to watch “The Lone Ranger” on TV. At the end of each episode, after the Lone Ranger had saved the victims from some villain, he would mount his horse, Silver. The rescued victim would ask Tonto, who always managed to be standing nearby, “Who is that masked man?” Tonto would reply, “Don’t you know? That’s the Lone Ranger.” Silver would stand on his hind legs, the Lone Ranger would wave and cry, “Hi ho, Silver, away!” To the tune of the “William Tell Overture,” he would ride off into the sunset and get ready for the next episode when he would rescue someone else in need.
Through our witness, people should be able to answer the question, “Who is this Man Jesus?” They should know, “He is the Lord God in human flesh, who offered Himself in the place of sinners. Whoever trusts in Him is reconciled to God and receives eternal life as His free gift.” God has entrusted to us the great task of carrying on the work of Jesus. As Peter instructs us, “Set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to every one who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; ...” (1 Pet. 3:15). Jesus is the Savior and Lord, coming to judge the world and reign as King! Let’s boldly proclaim it.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Do you ever feel overwhelmed with all that needs to be done in serving the Lord? We are needy people serving Christ in a needy world. Just this week we’ve heard of thousands killed and thousands more left homeless as a result of the hurricane in Central America. I often think of the billions who have yet to hear about the Savior. I feel overwhelmed with the immensity of the task and with my own inadequacy. How can I possibly meet the needs of this church, let alone the massive needs of this hurting world? Even the apostle Paul exclaimed, “Who is adequate for these things?” (2 Cor. 2:16).
No passage of Scripture has had a more profound impact on my service for Christ than the gospel accounts of the feeding of the 5,000. It could be argued that it is the most significant miracle Jesus performed, since it’s the only one God saw fit to record in all four gospels. I find myself coming back to its lessons again and again. Each time I come away refreshed as I recall how the Lord wants to give me His sufficiency for my insufficiency to meet the needs of this hurting world.
The Lord used this incident for the training of the twelve. We see this in His pointed challenge, “You give them something to eat!” John’s account (6:6) tells us that Jesus was testing them (especially Philip), knowing what He was about to do. The miracle itself is almost passed over. We are never told exactly how Jesus did it. The focus is not on the spectacular nature of the miracle, but on what it teaches those who serve Jesus about how He meets the needs of others through them.
Christ will give us His adequacy to meet the needs of people if we yield our inadequacy to Him.
Three things stand out in this story: the needy multitudes; the inadequate disciples; and the adequate Savior.
The apostles returned from their first preaching tour and gave an account to Jesus of all that they had done (9:10). Jesus withdrew with them to the vicinity of Bethsaida, on the northeast side of the Sea of Galilee. Mark’s account (6:31) tells us that the purpose of the getaway was rest. He also explains that there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and the disciples didn’t even have time to eat. So they got in the boat and started off across the lake, a distance of four to five miles.
But the trip across the lake was the only vacation they got, since the people saw them going and ran there from all the cities and arrived ahead of them. When the disciples saw that crowd of needy people standing on the shore, they must have thought, “Oh, no! Lord, can we turn the boat around?”
The fact that this many people would go to this effort to be with Jesus shows how needy they were. If you had taken a survey of the crowd, many would have said that their greatest need was for physical healing. There were blind, deaf, lame, diseased and dying people there. By the end of the day, others would have said that their greatest need was for food. There was nothing to eat in that desolate place. But whether anyone recognized it or not, each person’s greatest need was spiritual. Jesus could heal their bodies and fill their stomachs, but that was only a stopgap measure if they perished in their sins. So Jesus taught them about the kingdom of God, how they could rightly be related to Him (9:11).
Have you ever seen the bumper sticker, “Life is tough; then you die”? If a person does not know God and have the hope of eternal life, that bumper sticker is pretty close to the truth! Sin has taken a terrible toll on the human race. Often the problems people encounter can be the entry point for us to minister to them, not only physically or emotionally, but also spiritually, which is their greatest need. But that’s where we encounter our own problem:
Did you notice the contrast between Jesus’ attitude toward the multitude and that of the disciples? Jesus welcomed them (9:11), but the disciples said to Jesus, “Send the multitude away” (9:12). It may be that the disciples were just being practical about how to meet the needs of the crowd, but given the situation, I think we are warranted to read some exhaustion into their voices. They were spent. They wanted a break.
Then Jesus said something utterly ridiculous: “You give them something to eat” (9:13). “Say again, Lord?” “You give them something to eat.” There were 5,000 men, plus women and children. If there were 2.5 children for each man and woman, we’re talking about providing dinner for a crowd half the population of Flagstaff! That’s enough people to fill the NAU Skydome to capacity, with some standing in the aisles! All the food the disciples could come up with was five loaves and two fish, which came from a little boy (John 6:9). The entire incident underscores the utter inadequacy of the disciples to meet this overwhelming need.
The manner in which Jesus performed this miracle is significant. He could have called down manna from heaven. Commentators point out that this miracle took place in the wilderness and that the 5,000, seated in companies, recalls Israel camped by tribes in the wilderness under Moses. Calling down manna would have fit the situation. It would have been easier on the twelve. It would have been more efficient. But He didn’t do it that way.
Or, the Lord could have spoken the word and a loaf of bread would have miraculously appeared in each person’s hand. Everyone would have been more awed at Jesus’ power than they were with the quiet way this miracle was done. It would have been much more efficient and impressive than having the disciples distribute the bread and fish to this large crowd, which must have taken a long time.
Or Jesus could have called angels who could have taken the bread from His hand and flown directly to each group and given them the food. People would have been amazed. They would have talked about it for the rest of their lives. It would have been stupendous!
But how did Jesus do it? He used the disciples to distribute the bread and fish to the people. I’m convinced that the Lord did the miracle that way to teach the disciples that His method for meeting the needs of a lost world is through people. Christ meets the needs of people through people. But note carefully the kind of people He uses: Inadequate people!
Jesus uses tired, emotionally drained people. The disciples had just returned from their first preaching tour. Jesus knew they were tired and needed a rest. But their only rest had been the short trip across the lake. True, Jesus let them rest all day as He taught and healed the multitude. But, still, their tiredness and emotional condition comes through in their request, “Send them away.”
Jesus uses busy people. They didn’t even have time to eat because of all the people coming and going. I thought that our hectic schedules were unique to our culture, but apparently not! I have worked as a banquet waiter, so I know that once they started handing out the food to this huge crowd, they were busy men! But invariably the Lord doesn’t use people with extra time on their hands. He uses those who are busy and He keeps them busy. I’m sure that they didn’t have time to eat until that entire crowd had been served.
Jesus uses people who lack resources. The disciples’ comment about buying enough food for all these people was no doubt said with some sarcasm. They didn’t have nearly enough money to do that. The other gospels report that they did a quick calculation and told Jesus that 200 denarii (seven to eight months’ wages) would not be enough to give each person just a little bread. Obviously, the disciples didn’t have anywhere near that much cash in hand. Besides, they were in a desolate place. Even if they went to Bethsaida to buy bread, there wouldn’t be that much bread available. They were ridiculously lacking in the resources to meet Jesus’ demand to feed the multitude.
Some people say, “I’ll serve Jesus someday, but I’m too busy and stressed out to get involved right now.” Or, they think, “I plan to give generously to the Lord’s work after I get my finances in better shape. But right now I can’t afford to give much.” But they’re making the mistake of thinking that serving Christ is something we volunteer to do when we have adequate time, energy, and financial resources. Then they’ll choose to serve Him.
But Jesus doesn’t work through people who choose to serve. He works through His servants. Servants don’t volunteer to serve. They don’t tell their masters, “I’ll clean your house and fix dinner tomorrow, but I’m too stressed out or busy today!” Servants serve when they’re tired, emotionally drained, busy, and lacking in adequate resources. Servants serve because they’re under obligation to their master.
How do we do it? By yielding our inadequacy to the Master to use as He pleases. Five small loaves and two fish, a boy’s lunch—not much to feed such a crowd. Matthew records Jesus as saying, “Bring them here to Me!” That’s the key! Give your inadequate resources and abilities to Jesus. The insufficient becomes more than sufficient when surrendered to Christ! That points us to the third prominent feature of this story, the adequate Savior:
Two thoughts:
That sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But so often we make up excuses about what we don’t have and we fail to offer to Jesus what we do have. “If I just had more money, I’d give regularly to the church!” “If I just had the gift of evangelism, I’d witness more!” “If I just had the ability that others have, I’d serve the Lord.” “If I just ...”! But Jesus didn’t use all the bread in Bethsaida, which the disciples didn’t have. He used the five loaves and two fish that they did have. Jesus doesn’t ask you to give Him what you don’t have. He asks you to give Him what you do have.
A country preacher went to a farmer in his church and asked, “If you had two farms, would you be willing to give one farm to God?” “Yes,” replied the farmer. “I only wish I were in a position to do it.” The preacher persisted, “If you had $20,000, would you give $10,000 to the Lord’s work?” The farmer replied, “Yes, I’d love to have that kind of money! I’d gladly give $10,000 to the Lord’s work.” Then the preacher sprung his trap: “If you had two pigs, would you give one to the Lord’s work?” The farmer blurted out, “That’s not fair! You know I’ve got two pigs!”
The Lord doesn’t use what you don’t have. He uses the inadequate things you have when you yield them to Him.
The disciples weren’t giving the orders here. They were following Jesus’ orders: “Have them recline to eat in groups of about fifty each.” “Eat what, Lord?” “It won’t work, Lord!” “I’ve got a better idea, Lord.” No, they did what Jesus commanded. We need to yield ourselves to Him and let Him do as He sees fit. What Jesus did with this boy’s lunch is what He does with us when we give Him our inadequate abilities and resources:
Jesus blesses.
Without His blessing, we’re wasting our time. “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it” (Ps. 127:1). Do you covet God’s blessing in your life and labors for Him? A message by Watchman Nee, “Expecting the Lord’s Blessing” (in Twelve Baskets Full [Hong Kong Church Book Room], vol. 2, pp. 48-64) has had a profound influence on me. Nee argues that everything in God’s work depends upon His blessing. If it is there, even an insufficient amount is sufficient; if it is lacking, the greatest resources and efforts in the world will not be enough.
By God’s blessing, Nee means a working of God that is far in excess of human calculations. If you scrape together 200 denarii and buy enough bread to give everybody a little bit, that is not God’s blessing. But if there is no human way to explain the results in proportion to the gifts or working of those involved, that is God’s blessing. It’s not that we’re sloppy about our work and expect God to cover for our laziness and incompetence. We ought to work hard and be skilled in what we do for the Lord. But to have God’s blessing is not to expect results in proportion to my talents and labor, but in proportion to God’s abundance.
So often we’re just like the disciples. We see the need and start calculating with what we don’t have. Pastors think, “If I just had Bill Gates in my congregation as a tither!” But as Nee points out, “If we have to accumulate sufficient wages to buy bread for the needy multitudes, years and years will elapse before their need is met. We must expect God to work beyond all that man can conceive” (ibid., p. 63). Without the Lord’s blessing, five loaves and two fish were woefully inadequate. With His blessing, it was more than enough. May we covet God’s blessing and examine ourselves to make sure that nothing in our lives hinders it!
Jesus breaks.
Blessing and brokenness go together. You won’t find God’s blessing apart from God’s breaking. You can see it in the lives of every person God has used. Abraham and Sarah had to be past their ability to produce a child before God gave them Isaac. Jacob had to be crippled in his hip before he prevailed with God. Moses had to fail in his own strength and spend 40 years tending sheep in the wilderness before God used him to deliver Israel.
Vance Havner observed, “God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.” (Source unknown.)
Most of us aren’t too weak to serve the Lord. We’re too strong, or at least we think we are. The Lord does not want our adequacy; He wants our inadequacy so that He can supply the adequacy. He puts His treasure in our weak, earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power is clearly from Him, not from us (2 Cor. 4:7). His strength is made perfect in our weakness when we yield ourselves to Him and allow Him to bless, break, multiply and distribute our few loaves and fishes to meet the needs of others. Jesus blesses; He breaks. Then,
Jesus satisfies.
Jesus “kept giving them to the disciples to set before the multitude. And they all ate and were satisfied” (9:16b-17a). The “all” included the boy who gave up his lunch! Everyone had enough. They even had leftovers! No one went hungry.
Don’t miss the end of verse 17: The leftovers added up to twelve baskets full. How many disciples? Twelve! How many baskets full? Twelve! A basket full for each disciple! But the disciples had to serve the hungry multitude first; only after that did they each collect their basket full. Sometimes we think, “If I give my time and energy and money to serve the Lord, what’s in it for me?” As Jesus goes on to explain (9:24), “Whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” Lose yourself in service for Jesus and He will make sure you get a basket full after you’re done!
The bread in this miracle is symbolic of Christ. He said, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). The Lord is teaching us that if we will surrender ourselves to Him to use as He pleases in meeting the needs of others, then He will satisfy us with a full measure of Himself.
We hear a lot about “burnout” in our day. While we need adequate rest and time off, we can test our labors for the Lord by this: If we’re burned out, there’s a good chance we’ve been trying to meet human needs with our inadequate abilities and resources. But if we come away tired, yes, but with the satisfaction of the fulness of Christ left over in our souls, then the Lord’s blessing was on us.
D. L. Moody was a man whom God greatly used. Thousands of people both in America and in England met the Savior through his tireless labors. But humanly speaking, Moody was a very inadequate man. One of nine children, his father died when he was four. He had little formal education. All his life his grammar was atrocious. What little religious education he received as a child was in a Unitarian church. At 17, he left home to work in a Boston shoe store. There, a Sunday School teacher called on him and presented the claims of Christ. In the back of that store, Moody trusted the Savior.
He applied to join a church, but they turned him down and kept him waiting ten months because he was so ignorant of the Bible. He moved to Chicago where, after work, he began to go out into the slums and gather the poor children to bring to Sunday School. A businessman who knew Moody before he became famous told of the first time that he saw him. Moody had gotten permission to hold a meeting in a little shanty that a saloonkeeper had abandoned. The businessman came in a little late and saw this heavyset man holding a small black boy in his arms. By the light of a few candles he was trying to read to him the story of the prodigal son. He couldn’t make out many of the words and had to skip them. The businessman thought, “If the Lord can use such an instrument as that for His honor and glory, it will certainly astonish me!”
After the meeting was over, Moody told the man, “I have only one talent; I have no education, but I love the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to do something for Him. Pray for me.” Henry Varley, a good friend of Moody’s in the early days of his work, once said to Moody, “It remains to be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him.” Moody thought about that and said, “By God’s grace, I will be that man.”
God may not call you to preach to thousands, as Moody did. But if you’ve tasted His mercy, He does call you to serve Him in some way. He wants to use you to give the Bread of Life to those who are hungry. The requirement is that you see how inadequate you are to do anything for Him. Then, yield your inadequacy to Him to use as He pleases. He will use you to help meet the needs of a hurting world. And He will give you a basket full of leftovers for yourself besides!
Copyright Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Sometimes asking the right question is crucial for your well-being. When the temperature soared to 120 degrees, a missionary in South America was tempted to cool off with a swim in the local river, but he was leery because of the man-eating fish. The locals assured him, though, that piranhas only bite people while the fish are swimming in schools, which they never did in that part of the river. So each afternoon for the rest of the summer, the missionary enjoyed cooling off in the river.
Months later he heard reports that a local fisherman had fallen out of his boat and had not been found. Alarmed, he asked his neighbors if perhaps the man had been eaten by piranhas. “Oh, no,” they assured him. “Only while swimming in schools do piranhas bite people, and they never swim in schools around here.”
“But why not around here?” the missionary asked.
“Oh,” the neighbor casually replied, “they never swim in schools where there are alligators.” (Adapted from Reader’s Digest [7/96], p. 48.) Asking the right questions and answering them correctly can mean the difference between being safe and being an alligator’s lunch!
The same is true spiritually. Asking and answering correctly the right questions can mean the difference between eternal life and eternal condemnation. For example, one of the first major controversies to erupt in the early church was the question, “Must a man be circumcised to be saved?” (Acts 15:1). The apostle Paul said that if a person answered that question affirmatively, he was under God’s condemnation (Gal. 1:6-9)! Some errors are fatal!
While there are a number of crucial spiritual questions, none is more important than the question Jesus asked the twelve in Luke 9:20, “But who do you say that I am?” For example, there are thousands of people who believe that the Bible is God’s Word. They seek to obey its moral standards. They believe in Jesus’ virgin birth. They believe that He sacrificed His life to set us free from sin and death and that all who put their faith in Jesus can have their sins forgiven and receive everlasting life (these statements are affirmed in “What Does God Require of Us?” [Watchtower Society, 1996], pp. 6-7). Yet these people are going to hell because they deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am referring to the Jehovah’s Witness cult. The same could be said of other cults, such as Mormonism, that claim to be Christian, but deny either Jesus’ true deity or His true humanity. Thus
Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” is crucial for each person to answer correctly.
As I pointed out in our study of Luke 9:1-9, the matter of Jesus’ identity is one that Luke has repeatedly emphasized. It was in the birth narrative, where the angels announced the birth of the Savior, who is Christ the Lord (2:11). The forerunner, John the Baptist, denied that he was the Christ and pointed people to Jesus (3:15-17). Even the demons knew Jesus’ identity as the Holy One of God (4:34) and the Son of God (4:41). The theme surfaced again when Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sins and the scribes and Pharisees reasoned, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” (5:21). The same question was asked when He forgave the sinful woman (7:49). When Jesus stilled the storm, the disciples even marveled, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?” (8:25). Herod raises the question when he hears of the miracles taking place: “Who is this man about whom I hear such things?” (9:9).
But now Jesus directly asks the twelve, first, “Who do the multitudes say that I am?” (9:18); and then, “But who do you say that I am?” (9:20). Peter’s confession, “The Christ of God,” is a turning point in Luke. Walter Liefeld observes, “Theologically, this is the most important statement thus far in Luke. It is the first time a disciple refers to Jesus as Messiah (cf. 2:11, 26; 3:15; 4:41)” (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Zondervan], 8:922). Peter’s answer is correct, even revealed to him by God (Matt. 16:17). But the disciples had the notion of Messiah as the reigning King. They did not yet understand the suffering and sacrificial death of Messiah.
Thus Jesus immediately mentions His impending death and resurrection (9:22) and the cost of discipleship for His followers (9:23-26, 57-62). Suffering has been hinted at before (2:35; 5:35), but this is the first explicit mention of it. It will become a frequent theme as Jesus sets His face to go to Jerusalem and the cross (9:51; see 9:44; 17:25; 18:31-33; 24:7, 46-47). But the disciples didn’t really comprehend it until after the resurrection (9:45; 18:34; 24:25-26, 45-46). It was their full understanding of the matter, that “the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead,” that enabled them to go forth as bold witnesses, proclaiming repentance for forgiveness of sins in His name (24:46-48).
I want to explore with you several ramifications of Jesus’ crucial question, “Who do you say I am?”
I mean, only one answer is correct. It is not, “Jesus, however you conceive Him to be.” Jesus didn’t say, “Great answer, Peter! Do any of the rest of you have any different thoughts? Yes, Judas, how do you feel about Me?” Some say, “For me, Jesus is always accepting and loving.” But Jesus isn’t whatever you want Him to be. How you feel about Jesus doesn’t change who He is. There is a single correct answer to the question that is not based on feelings or personal opinions, but on objective revealed truth.
This is important to affirm because we live in a day when people think that spiritual truth is not objectively true. Rather, they see it as personally true. They do not view spiritual truth in terms of propositional revelation (doctrine), where God has spoken to us in the Bible in language we can understand. Nor do they see spiritual truth in terms of verifiable history, centered in the historical Jesus of Nazareth, whose teaching, miracles, death and bodily resurrection are reported in the New Testament by eyewitnesses.
Rather, our postmodern world views spiritual truth in terms of each person’s experience of it. As such, it is not verifiable. If it’s true for you, then it’s true. If your spiritual experience is different from mine, one is not right and the other wrong, even if they contradict one another. They can both be true, according to the current view of truth, because spiritual truth is determined by personal experience, not by objective, verifiable means.
This faulty view of spiritual truth is a central tenet of the unity movement that is urging Catholics and evangelical Protestants to drop their doctrinal differences and come together for worship and witness. Doctrine is viewed as divisive. Love for Jesus and for one another is all that matters. But the movement allows for “Jesus” and “being born again” to be defined any way that you conceive. For example, at the 1994 Promise Keepers rally in Portland, Oregon, Bill McCartney said that Promise Keepers didn’t care whether you were a Baptist, a Pentecostal, or a Roman Catholic. The main question, he said, is, “Are you born in the Spirit of God?”
Pastor James Singleton astutely responded,
What does that mean? Some people believe that they are born again in the waters of baptism. Others confess that they are born again at the time of their confirmation. Still others believe that they are receiving Christ and are born again each time they attend Mass. The problem with the unqualified question is that it can mean whatever you want it to mean. That philosophy fits with the spirit of the age that minimizes objective Biblical truth in favor of a subjective experience. (Cited in “The Evangelical Eroding of the Deity of Christ,” by Tom Watson [Countryside Bible Church], p. 9; italics in original.)
Thus it’s important at the outset to affirm that the question, “Who do you say Jesus is?” has one correct answer and many incorrect or partially correct answers. It is not just a matter of personal opinion or preference, where any answer is as good as the next. It’s a matter of God’s truth as revealed in His Word.
Some of you have already affirmed this point, because you didn’t like what I just said against the unity movement! You have to be careful here, because none of us likes confrontation or division. We all prefer peace and unity. But if you go by your emotions, you will fall into serious doctrinal error and defection from God’s revealed truth. But read your New Testament: more than any other thing, it warns against false teachers and false doctrine. Objective truth always divides people into opposing camps. Like Peter and the disciples, you may have to go against public opinion to arrive at the correct answer concerning Jesus.
Have you ever thought about how difficult it must have been for the disciples to commit themselves to Jesus as the Christ? For centuries, faithful Jews had been waiting and looking for God’s promised Messiah. Many lived and died without seeing that hope fulfilled. Sometimes prophets came on the scene, raising hopes that they might be the Messiah. But they died and the people kept waiting. Then, suddenly this young carpenter from Nazareth began preaching and performing miracles. Could He be the one? He certainly didn’t fit everyone’s image of what Messiah would be like. But the disciples committed themselves to Jesus as that long-awaited Messiah.
Remember, they didn’t have 1,900 years of church history to confirm their faith, as we do. They were the first ones to say, “This is the One!” And they had to say it in the face of public opinion that didn’t agree with them. This fact is underscored by the contrast between Jesus’ first question, “Who do the multitudes say that I am?” and His second question, “But who do you [emphatic in the Greek] say that I am?”
The disciples had to stand against three strong currents to affirm their conviction that Jesus is the Christ. First was the Roman government, which didn’t care if Christians worshiped Jesus as long as they also affirmed Caesar as Lord. But the disciples insisted, “No, Jesus is the only Lord!” That narrow view cost many of them their lives. If you take your stand with the disciples in proclaiming Jesus as the only way to God, you will have to go against the pagan culture of our day. People don’t mind if you hold your personal beliefs in Jesus, just so that you don’t contend that He is the only way! That’s too narrow and dogmatic. I saw a bumper sticker that said, “If you’re against abortion, don’t have one.” The idea is, “You can have your personal views of morality, but don’t tell me that my behavior is wrong. If you want to believe in Jesus, that’s your privilege, but don’t judge me for my beliefs!”
The disciples also had to go against the opinions of the Jewish religious crowd, which had varying notions of who Jesus might be. Some heard His powerful preaching against sin and thought of John the Baptist. Others saw Jesus’ miracles and were reminded of the powerful prophet, Elijah. Others thought He might be another of the prophets. All of these were perhaps flattering, but inadequate, ideas of who Jesus really was. The disciples had to stand apart from the Jewish religious crowd to affirm Jesus as Messiah and Lord.
In a similar manner, you may have to go against the Christian crowd of our day. Many who call themselves Christians have ideas about Jesus which fall far short of affirming Him as Lord and Christ. Some see Jesus as the all-tolerant, loving One, who never speaks against anyone’s sin. They seek to get their denominations to affirm sins such as homosexuality and abortion. Others use Jesus to endorse their worldly views of feminism or politics. Still others mix Jesus with some brand of pop psychology. You have to stand against these popular views of Jesus to confess Him truly as Lord and Christ.
The third, and most formidable, group the disciples had to oppose was the Jewish religious leaders (9:22). The disciples were not formally educated in the Hebrew Scriptures; these men were. The disciples had no public influence; these men were the recognized leaders in Israel. They were the interpreters of Moses, the guardians of the Jewish law. Who did this bunch of uneducated fishermen think they were to go against the common judgment of this august body of scholars?
You will often have to join the disciples in pitting your view of Jesus against the religious scholars of our day. Even some who call themselves evangelical deny the trustworthy nature of all Scripture. They interpret Jesus in light of the most recent “scholarship,” which invariably comes from men with an anti-supernaturalistic bias. One flagrant example is the recent “Jesus Seminar,” where a bunch of supposed scholars got together and voted on which sayings of Jesus were authentic. How did they determine this? They begin by assuming the gospels to be myth unless proven otherwise. From there they proceed with pure subjectivism. Using their methods and assumptions, we could easily conclude that the members of the Jesus Seminar really didn’t say what they claim to have said! This question, “Who do you say Jesus is?” divides people. You must take your stand with the disciples.
Peter’s answer, “the Christ of God,” is certainly correct. But, Peter had a different conception of what that meant than Jesus did. Peter meant, “You are the promised Anointed One who will sit on David’s throne, ruling the nations with a rod of iron.” That is quite correct when understood of Messiah’s second coming. But, in regard to His first coming, the more correct answer was, “You are the One Anointed by God to be crucified as our sin-bearer and raised from the dead by the power of God.” Jesus had to fulfill Isaiah 53 and other Scriptures which point to Messiah’s bearing the sins of His people before He would reign on David’s throne. Peter was correct, but he needed to come to a deeper level of correct understanding.
There is even a deeper level of correct understanding revealed here: “You are the crucified, risen Christ who is the Sovereign Lord.” Jesus’ prophecy (9:22) makes it plain that He did not die as a helpless victim. The Jewish leaders who crucified Him did not thwart God’s plan for Jesus to reign on David’s throne. They were guilty of the terrible sin of crucifying their Messiah, but at the same time, Jesus willingly offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. He was in sovereign control, even in His death. Peter later grasped this as he preached on the Day of Pentecost, “This Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. And God raised Him up again” (Acts 2:23-24a).
One of the beautiful things about the Christian life is that you grow into deeper and deeper levels of understanding about the infinite, unfathomable, sovereign person of Jesus Christ. Do you know Him as your Savior? That’s great! You start there. But don’t stop there! There’s much more! Jesus tells us how we can know more of Him: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him” (John 14:21). Jesus promises to reveal more of Himself to those who obey Him.
So, begin with knowing Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed One of God, the Savior. But go on discovering all that He is as the Sovereign Lord of the universe. The joy of the Christian life is growing to know the Lord Jesus more intimately.
We’ve seen that this crucial question has an objectively correct answer; it divides people; and, it has deepening levels of correct understanding. Finally,
Jesus goes on to warn the disciples not to tell anyone and then He tells them of His impending death. Luke omits Peter’s rebuke of Jesus and Jesus’ corresponding rebuke of Peter (Matt. 16:22-23). But we know that Jesus’ words were not what the disciples expected to hear or wanted to hear. Their idea of the Christ was a political Messiah who would put a chicken in every pot and a donkey in every stable. They were thinking of power and dominion, not of suffering, rejection, and death.
But Jesus wasn’t sent by the Father to make everyone happy, so that they could go on living self-centered lives with God’s help. He came to deal with the fundamental problem of the human race: sin. The essence of sin is our stubborn self-will that says, “I’ll run my own life, God. Just help me feel good when I need You.” The cross, where the Lord of Glory took the penalty we deserved, was the only divine solution for our sin problem. If you haven’t come as a sinner to the crucified Christ and trusted Him as God’s provision for your sin, you have not responded correctly to Jesus’ crucial question.
If the disciples had gone out and proclaimed Jesus as the political Messiah who would lead a revolt against Rome, they would have met with widespread response. John 6:15 reports that after the feeding of the 5,000, the crowd wanted to take Jesus by force to make Him king. But God’s sovereign plan was the way of the cross, both for Jesus (9:22) and for those who follow Him (9:23). To follow a crucified Savior and to live a crucified life requires faith and obedience. It goes against the mentality of our day that says, “You’re worthy; feel good; use God for your own happiness.” But, clearly, it is the only response for those who see who Jesus really is.
A. B. Bruce said it well: “For the whole aim of Satanic policy is to get self-interest recognized as the chief aim of man” (The Training of the Twelve [Kregel], p. 180). For Jesus to have avoided the cross would have been for Him to seek His selfish interests. Satan would have triumphed. But Jesus came to do the will of the Father. That’s why He said, “The Son of Man must suffer” (9:22). He came to glorify the Father by being obedient, even to death on the cross. The “must” was the necessity of obedience to the Father’s will above all else. It shows that Jesus’ death was a necessary and inevitable part of the divine plan (13:33; 17:25; 22:37; 24:7, 26, 44). Understanding that Jesus is the Christ of the cross means that we who follow Him must walk in the way of the cross, which means trusting and obeying Him, even when it may not feel good for the moment.
What’s your answer to Jesus’ crucial question, “Who do you say that I am?” You may be standing with the multitude, saying, “Jesus is a fine example, a great teacher, even a prophet. But He is not the Sovereign Lord of my life.” That is a badly mistaken answer. You may be standing with Peter, saying correctly, “You are the Christ,” but not understanding the sort of Christ He really is. That’s an improvement over the first answer, but it is inadequate. You must stand with Jesus who came as God’s Anointed to bear your sins, who was raised in triumph over sin and death, who calls us to follow Him in obedience to the will of the Father. As Peter later preached, “God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). If you stand there, ready to obey God no matter what the cost, you have correctly answered Jesus’ crucial question, “Who do you say I am?
If Jesus is not your sin-bearer and your Lord, I encourage you to read the Gospels with the prayer, “God, show me who Jesus is. If You show me that He is Your Anointed Savior and Lord, I will trust Him and follow Him.”
Copyright Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Thirty years ago, the teaching that Christians should love themselves and have proper self-esteem was virtually unheard of in evangelical circles. One of the first books to popularize the concept was James Dobson’s Hide or Seek [Revell, 1974], subtitled “Self-Esteem for the Child.” He began that book with the story of Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot President Kennedy. Oswald had been put down, ridiculed, and unloved all his life. The one thing he could do well was shoot a rifle. Dobson implies that if Oswald had just had the proper self-esteem, he would not have committed his infamous crime. Dobson goes on to state his thesis:
… whenever the keys to self-esteem are seemingly out of reach for a large percentage of the people, … then widespread “mental illness,” neuroticism, hatred, alcoholism, drug abuse, violence, and social disorder will certainly occur. Personal worth is not something human beings are free to take or leave. We must have it and when it is unattainable, everybody suffers (pp. 12-13, italics and quotation marks in original).
Dobson opened the door and the doctrine of self-esteem has flooded into the church. It is like the thistle, which is not native to our forests, but has spread everywhere since it was introduced. You cannot pick up a popular Christian best-seller or tune into a Christian talk show without finding this teaching. A promotional brochure for the Christian Rapha Treatment Centers contains endorsements from several well-known Christian leaders. It states, “Part of Rapha’s success is found in the unique ability to target and resolve problems of low self-esteem…. At the core of all emotional problems and addictive disorders is low self-worth. It is never the only problem; but it is so major an issue that, if not dealt with adequately, one is kept from experiencing lasting, positive results.”
Building your self-esteem and learning to love and accept yourself unconditionally are at the heart of the recovery movement that is being promoted in many evangelical churches. A popular workbook, “The Twelve Steps—A Spiritual Journey,” lists a number of milestones in recovery. Here are a few:
We have a strong identity and generally approve of ourselves.
We are recovering through loving and focusing on ourselves…
We feel comfortable standing up for ourselves when it is appropriate.
We love people who love and take care of themselves.
We have a healthy sense of self-esteem (p. 153).
A leading evangelical church uses that workbook in its support groups for adult children of alcoholics. Their orientation material states,
We learn to focus on ourselves in the here and now, and to detach from our obsession with the alcoholic. We learn to love ourselves and others, even though this may sometimes take the form of “tough love.”… We learn to allow ourselves to feel our feelings, and then to express them. This builds self esteem, which is the missing ingredient in our personalities, as it was never formed in childhood (“New Hope Support Group,” First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton, p. 6).
That same orientation packet encourages people (without any warning) to read a number of books, including Melody Beattie’s Co-Dependent No More [Harper & Row], which is sold in many Christian bookstores and catalogs. Beattie dedicates that book to “me” (herself)! She states that God’s commandment to love your neighbor as yourself is the problem; her solution is the title of chapter 11: “Have a Love Affair With Yourself.”
Although I never went that far, for many years I taught that we need “proper” self-esteem. But then I came to see that the entire teaching is opposed to and condemned by Scripture. And I have grown increasingly concerned that because of the pervasiveness of this false teaching, there are many who think that they’re following Jesus, when actually they are only following self. They have been taught that the Christian faith and even Christian ministry are the avenues toward self-fulfillment. They’ve been told that Jesus will help you learn to love yourself, when in fact Jesus taught nothing of the kind. Rather, He clearly taught that …
If you’re living for self, you’re not following Jesus.
Jesus’ words follow Peter’s dramatic confession that Jesus is the Christ of God, which was followed by Jesus’ jarring prediction of His own death and resurrection (9:20, 22). In effect, Jesus was saying to the disciples, “I am not the kind of Christ you may think. I am not going to fulfill your desires for power and glory, at least not yet. I am not going to give you everything you want in this lifetime. I will come again in power and glory (9:26), but first comes the cross. And all who follow Me must follow in the way of the cross.” So He outlines for them all (Mark 8:34 shows that the “all” includes not only the twelve, but also the multitude) what it means to be His follower or disciple.
Before we examine this important verse, let me clear up another common misconception, namely, that discipleship is an option for the super-committed, but it is not mandatory for all believers. In other words, if you’re a masochist who likes hardship, deprivation, sacrifice, and perhaps even martyrdom, you can sign up for the discipleship track. You may be required to go to another culture and live in difficult or even dangerous conditions. You will probably be required to live at a poverty level, while your fellow Christians back home live in relative luxury. But, your reward in heaven will be greater. That’s the discipleship track, and we all hope that a few dedicated young people will go that route.
The other track, for the rest of us “normal” people, is the more sensible plan. You can pursue your dreams for success and personal fulfillment, live in increasing levels of luxury, and generally enjoy the good life in the fellowship of a good evangelical church. Every once in a while you need to drop something in the offering plate. But don’t worry about sacrifice, cross-bearing, or self-denial. Remember, we’re under grace, and all that sacrifice stuff is just for those on the discipleship track.
I contend that Jesus taught that there is only one track for those who believe in Him, namely, the discipleship track. While we’re all at differing levels of growth in the process of following Jesus, if you’re not His disciple, you are not a Christian. Every believer is called to be completely yielded to Jesus as Lord and completely dedicated to furthering His kingdom in accordance with the various gifts He has entrusted to you. If self is at the center of your life and you’re just using Jesus to fulfill self, you are not a Christian. Christians follow Jesus, which is diametrically opposed to living for self. In Luke 9:23, Jesus sets forth three requirements for following Him:
The word “deny” is the same word used of Peter’s denials of Jesus. It means to repudiate, renounce, or disown. Jesus wasn’t talking about denying yourself some little pleasure, like giving up chocolate for Lent. He was talking about a complete way of life involving a renunciation of living for your own selfish interests and an embracing of living for the sake of Christ and the gospel. The verb tenses of the three commands in 9:23 indicate that denying self and taking up one’s cross are basic decisions that result in a life of continual following of Jesus. Self-denial means “turning away from the idolatry of self-centeredness and every attempt to orient one’s life by the dictates of self-interest” (John Grassmick, The Bible Knowledge Commentary [Victor Books], 2:141). It means to give up the right to control your life and to give that right to Jesus Christ.
When confronted with such claims, most of us want to hedge our bets: “Can’t we work out some sort of compromise, so that I can live for Jesus part of the time, but live for myself, too?” Jesus answers this objection in verse 24: If you want to save your life (preserve it from self-denial; live to fulfill your own interests), you will lose it. But if you lose your life for the sake of Christ (that is, losing it in the sense of self-denial, which may or may not include literal martyrdom), you will save it, both now and for eternity.
This is not works salvation; God saves us by grace through faith. But, as Darrel Bock explains, “The essence of saving trust in God is self-denial, a recognition that he must save because disciples cannot save themselves, …” (Luke [Baker], 1:852). In other words, we begin the Christian life with the open confession that we cannot save ourselves by our own goodness or works. We denounce ourselves as sinners deserving God’s judgment and we entrust ourselves completely to Jesus Christ to save.
Then, just as we received Christ, so we walk in Him (Col. 2:6). We renounce self-exaltation (pride) and live to exalt God. We renounce self-will (directing our own lives) and live to do God’s will. We renounce self-seeking (living for our goals and desires, apart from God) and live instead to seek God and His kingdom and righteousness. Those who follow Jesus repudiate a self-centered life at every level. As Alexander Maclaren observes, “Flagrant vice is not needed to kill the real life. Clean, respectable selfishness does the work effectually” (Expositions of Holy Scripture [Baker reprint], “Mark,” p. 337).
Please note that Jesus is tacitly assuming that He is the rightful Lord of every person! He can make that claim because He is none other than the Lord God in human flesh. If He is not, He cannot demand our total allegiance; if He is, He commands nothing less.
Thus because of who Jesus is, receiving Him is not a matter of deciding that your life is lacking something and that Jesus will fill that void and give you the happy life you’ve always wanted. Jesus isn’t just one spoke in the wheel of your life. If that’s all He is, you have never dethroned self. To be a Christian is to deny self as both Savior and Lord and to enthrone Jesus in that place. This begins at the moment of salvation and continues throughout your Christian life. But if it has not begun, you have not become a Christian, since Jesus puts this requirement at the outset of a decision to follow Him.
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him ... take up his cross daily” (9:23b). Many Christians think that to bear their cross means putting up with a difficult mate or with a painful malady, such as arthritis. But taking up your cross is not an unavoidable trial that you passively submit to. Jesus says that it must be a daily thing that we actively choose to embrace. In Jesus’ day, the cross wasn’t an implement of irritation, inconvenience, or even suffering. The cross was an instrument of tortuous, slow execution. Jesus’ hearers knew that a man who took up his cross was, for all practical purposes, a dead man. A man bearing his cross gave up all hope and interest in the things of this world, including self-fulfillment. He knew he would be leaving this world in a very short time. He was dead to self.
Taking up your cross is not something you accomplish in an emotional moment of spiritual ecstasy or dedication. You never arrive on a spiritual mountaintop where you can sigh with relief, “I’m finally there! No more death to self!” Nor are there any shortcuts or quick fixes to this painful process. The need for dying to self is never finished in this life; it must be a daily thing. A Christian writer from the past century, A. T. Pierson said, “Getting rid of the ‘self-life’ is like peeling an onion: layer upon layer—and a tearful process!”
One of the main problems I have encountered in over two decades as a pastor is that we tend to be spiritually lazy and so we’re susceptible to anyone who comes along selling spiritual snake oil to cure our problems. Someone says, “Have this spiritual experience and you’ll be transported beyond all your problems and live a happy life.” So we buy it and for a while we may feel better. But we’re playing spiritual games. We’re still just as enslaved to sin and self as we were before. Why? Because we’re looking for miraculous, instant deliverance from a problem that Jesus said requires a daily, painful solution, namely, ongoing death to self.
What we lack and don’t want to develop (because it’s not easy) is spiritual discipline. Paul told Timothy, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7). Discipline isn’t miraculous or instantaneous and it’s not easy. No top athlete gets in shape by eating a dose of some wonder-food, like Popeye’s spinach. Nor does he work out for a few days and declare, “I’m in shape now!” It takes weeks, months, and even years. Neither does he finally get in shape and then kick back and say, “I’ve arrived! I’m in shape now, so I don’t need to work out any more.” The minute you stop working at it, you start getting flabby. It’s no different spiritually. Just as flabby muscles set in the day an athlete stops working out, so self asserts itself the day the Christian stops putting it to death.
In Titus 2:11-12 Paul wrote, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing (lit., training) us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.” Please note that this process of self-denial is not opposed to God’s grace, but right in line with it. I say this because when I teach that you must daily die to self through disciplined spiritual living, invariably someone accuses me of being legalistic. But neither Jesus nor Paul was legalistic for teaching self-denial! Paul says that God’s grace trains us to say no to all ungodliness and worldly desires and to replace those things with sensible, righteous, godly living. This is what the Puritans called the mortification of sin. It is something we must actively do every day (see Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5 [in KJV or NIV; the NASB mistranslates it]).
It starts on the thought level: you must deny and forsake sinful thoughts and attitudes, and replace them with godly thoughts and attitudes as revealed in Scripture. If you deal with sin on the thought level, then it never gets any further. When greedy thoughts invade your mind, you instantly judge them and pray, “Lord, I don’t want to desire the things of this world that is passing away, but to seek first Your kingdom.” When sexual lust tempts you, you yank out your eye (to use Jesus’ words, Matt. 5:27-29) and pray, “O God, fill my vision with the purity of Jesus and His righteousness!” When selfish thoughts (“I have my rights! I don’t have to take this!”) crowd your mind, you nail them to the cross by praying, “Lord Jesus, You gave up all Your rights, took on the form of a servant and became obedient to death on the cross for me. Help me to display that same attitude right now” (Phil. 2:5-8). That’s how Jesus’ disciples live, not for self, but daily dying to self in order to follow Jesus.
Thus, following Jesus requires a basic decision to repudiate self-centered living and to put self on the cross every day. Finally,
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him ... follow Me” (9:23c). It’s a present imperative, pointing to a continual process of walking behind Jesus, going where He goes, doing what He does. It means not calling our own shots or doing our own thing, but submitting to Jesus’ commands and doing His thing. As Godet remarks, “The chart of the true disciple directs him to renounce every path of his own choosing, that he may put his feet into the print of his leader’s footsteps” (A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke [I. K. Funk & Co.], p. 267).
We’ve already noted the daily, ongoing nature of this process, so I won’t comment further on that. We’ve also noted Jesus’ Lordship, that we must submit to Him and obey Him and His Word if we would follow Him. But we need to notice the personal aspect of the process: “Follow Me.” Jesus didn’t mean simply, “Follow My commands,” although that is vital and cannot be dismissed. Obedience is not optional (Matt. 7:21-23).
But we need to remember that obedience ought always to be connected to the personal relationship we enjoy with our Savior and Lord. He says to the disobedient who outwardly did all sorts of things in His name, “I never knew you” (Matt. 7:23). They lacked the personal relationship. But to the obedient Jesus promised, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him.... If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him” (John 14:21, 23). We should always link obedience with our personal love for Jesus.
Suppose a young woman takes a job as housekeeper and cook for a young bachelor. He gives her a list of the tasks that he expects her to do: cleaning the house, fixing his meals at certain times, etc. She performs those tasks in a satisfactory manner as his employee. But then the two fall in love and get married. She now may have to do many of the same tasks, but she does them out of a relationship of love, not out of sheer duty. That’s the difference between mere outward obedience and obedience from a personal relationship. To follow Jesus means continual obedience to Him as Lord, but obedience in the context of knowing and loving Him as our Bridegroom and Savior, who gave His life so that we could live with Him, both now and in eternity.
I read of a young nurse named Sheila who summed up her personal philosophy as “Sheilaism,” explaining, “It’s just try to love yourself and be gentle with yourself.” Well, at least she didn’t mistake her view for Christianity! But I’m afraid that a lot of American Christians are deceiving themselves, thinking that they’re following Jesus when really, they, like Sheila, are just into themselves.
The doctrine of self-love or self-esteem is not compatible with Jesus’ teaching on self-denial. It is sad that many advocates of self-esteem cite the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39) as biblical justification for self-love. Some even go so far as to say that we cannot love God or others until we first learn to love ourselves! But Jesus said that there were only two great commands—love God and love your neighbor. He assumed that we all love ourselves quite well. In fact, if we would just love others as much as we do love ourselves, we would fulfill the law of love. John Calvin saw this clearly. He wrote,
Hence it is very clear that we keep the commandments not by loving ourselves but by loving God and neighbor; that he lives the best and holiest life who lives and strives for himself as little as he can, and that no one lives in a worse or more evil manner than he who lives and strives for himself alone, and thinks about and seeks only his own advantage. (The Institutes of the Christian Religion [Westminster], 2:8:54).
Maybe you’re thinking, “Self-denial sounds so negative!” Let me remind you, I didn’t come up with this. Jesus did! In the short term, self-denial is difficult and not very pleasant. But there are eternal blessings in store when you follow Jesus on the path of the cross. He explains in verse 24: “For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” When you die to self and follow Jesus, He graciously gives you the ultimate in fulfillment as the by-product—the joy of eternal life and of being affirmed by Jesus before the Father when He comes in glory (9:26)!
If, like me a few years ago, you have been taken in by the self-esteem teaching, I encourage you to re-evaluate it in light of all Scripture, especially, Luke 9:23. You won’t find a single verse telling you to build your self-esteem or to love yourself more. You will find many telling you to die to self and to humble yourself. It’s pretty clear: Following Jesus means dying to self. Living for self means that you’re not following Jesus.
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Motivation is the key to doing some things that you’d rather not do. Sometimes the motivation is negative: Read the assignment or you’ll flunk the course. At other times, it may be more positive. I read of a mother who was worried because her daughter, who was away at college, had not replied to the mother’s letters. The father told his wife that he would get the daughter to write promptly without even asking her to do so.
He wrote the daughter a letter, filled with news from home and that sort of thing. Then he casually added that he was enclosing a check. But he did not actually enclose the check. The daughter wrote back promptly, thanking him for the money, but pointing out that he must have forgotten to enclose it. Even college students can write to their parents if they’re motivated!
Jesus has just said some difficult things about His going to the cross and the fact that if anyone wants to follow Him, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily. As we saw in our last study, Jesus was talking about denying our selfishness and daily putting to death our sinful desires. Jesus’ words raise the question, “Why would anyone want to crucify himself every day?” Frankly, it doesn’t sound like a lot of fun! So Jesus goes on to give the explanation and motivation for why a person would want to do this. Verses 24, 25, and 26 all begin with the word “for.” Jesus is explaining why it is essential to live in the difficult manner He has just outlined in verse 23. To put it in the first person:
I should deny myself and take up my cross daily because I live in view of eternity.
Each of these three verses focuses on the eternal perspective. In verse 24, Jesus shows that there is a paradox: the person who seeks to save his life by not denying self in the short run will lose his life in the end. In verse 25 He shows that the profit of living for this world will be nothing compared with eternal loss of one’s soul. In verse 26 He shows that the temporary shame of being identified with Jesus and His teaching is a small thing compared with having Jesus ashamed of us at His glorious second coming.
British scholar Harry Blamires, in his classic book, The Christian Mind [Vine Books], states, “A prime mark of the Christian mind is that it cultivates the eternal perspective. That is to say, it looks beyond this life to another one” (p. 67). I agree with Blamires that we have largely lost this in contemporary evangelicalism. Our focus has become that of this world: What can Jesus do for me in the here and now? Heaven is nice and hell must be terrible, but those aren’t matters of concern for the present. Can Jesus fix my troubled marriage? Can He help me with my emotional troubles? Can He help me get that better job? The abundant life right now is our main concern. We have lost the eternal perspective. But in these three verses, Jesus shows us that to live wisely in the here and now, we must keep our focus on eternity:
Jesus here presents a paradox that applies both to our ultimate salvation and to temporal matters of discipleship. If we pursue our own agenda, we will lose in the end. But, if we let go of our selfish aims and entrust ourselves to the Lord Jesus, living for His purposes, seeking His will, we will gain eternal life when we die and multiplied blessings while we live. Verse 24 is really just a restatement of Matthew 6:33 in its context. If we eagerly seek all the things the world seeks, we will come up empty. But if we abandon that pursuit and seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness, all these necessary things will be added unto us.
The principle applies first and foremost to the eternal salvation of our souls. The way of the world is that we seek eternal salvation by our good works in this life: Go to church, give money, do deeds of kindness and mercy, try to live a moral life, and you will earn salvation. But that approach does not deal the death blow to our pride. Rather, it feeds pride. If our approach to eternal life is that we merit it by our good deeds, we can look down on those who are not as good as we are. We mistakenly think that we can commend ourselves to God. But the fatal fallacy in this approach is that it does not deal with our sin before the holy God.
I read recently of a 67-year-old man who has given an amazing 100 pints of blood. He often gives blood every 56 days, which is as soon as the blood banks allow. His comment was, “When that final whistle blows and St. Peter asks, ‘What did you do?’ I’ll just say, ‘Well, I gave 100 pints of blood.’ That ought to get me in.” (Reader’s Digest [7/98], p. 85.)
Muhammad Ali, the former boxing champion, now suffers from Parkinson’s disease. He jokes about his illness, “It’s a blessing. I always liked to chase the girls—Parkinson’s stops all that. Now I might have a chance to go to heaven.” He devotes his time to a number of charity causes.
“With everything I do,” he says, “I ask myself, Will God accept this? One day you’ll wake up and it’ll be Judgment Day, so you need to do good deeds. I love going to hospitals. I love sick people. I don’t worry about disease.” (Reader’s Digest [8/97], p. 83.)
Those two men are going to be shocked on judgment day. They are trying to save their souls by their good deeds. But they will lose their souls because they have not abandoned their good deeds as the basis of their acceptance with God and come, instead, to the cross where the Son of God offered Himself as the substitute for sinners. The cross, coupled with the doctrine of God’s sovereign grace, deals the death blow to our pride, as Paul clearly shows in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. As Paul there sums it up (1:28, 29), “And the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no flesh should boast before God.”
Salvation is of the Lord, not of us. So the disciple abandons any self-approach to salvation (self-righteousness or good deeds) and casts himself completely on Jesus Christ to save. By losing his life, he gains it.
But the principle of Luke 9:24 also applies to all of the Christian life. It applies to our money, which is not ours, but the Lord’s. We mistakenly think that we gain financial security by hoarding our money and giving away very little. While the Scripture teaches that it is prudent to put aside enough to provide for future anticipated needs (Prov. 6:6-11; 2 Cor. 12:14; 1 Tim. 5:8), it also teaches that if we are generous in giving, God will generously supply all our needs (Luke 6:38; 2 Cor. 9:8-11).
The principle of losing our life to gain it applies to our service to others. If we live for ourselves, never thinking of the needs of others, we will be lonely, miserly people. But if we give generously of our time in serving others for Jesus’ sake, it comes back to us many times over. I often find that if I give time that I don’t have to spare, the Lord makes up the time to me in other ways.
The principle also applies to your family life. Husbands are commanded to love their wives sacrificially, as Christ does the church (Eph. 5:25-33). Such sacrificial love requires thinking often of your wife and her needs, and seeking to meet those needs. It means praying for your wife. It means serving her, even if you don’t get to pursue your favorite pastimes.
But many husbands think only of themselves. They want the family to serve them. They selfishly think, “I work hard all day. If I come home and serve my family, when will I get time for my needs to be met?” But if you serve your mate and your children, it comes back to you in the form of love, kindness, and close, caring relationships. But if you selfishly dig in your heels and say, “I’m not going to serve them any more than they serve me,” you’ll lose by not having your needs met at all.
The principle also applies to your relationship with the Lord. Many Christians think, “If I spend time in Bible reading, meditation on the things of God, and prayer, I won’t get everything done that I have to do.” They live at a frantic pace, seldom taking the time to spend in God’s presence, thinking about the things above and the life to come. They end up burning out, having stress-induced physical problems, and all sorts of other crises that make life careen out of control. But if we die to self by putting time with God as a priority, He puts the rest of life into perspective.
So the first motivating reason to die daily to self for Jesus’ sake is that when we do, He brings the blessings of salvation back upon us in the long run. When we live for self, we may gain in the short term, but we’ll come up empty in view of eternity.
If we could only keep it in mind: This life is a fleeting millisecond in light of eternity. And yet we devote all of our time and energy as if we will be on this earth forever and as if there were no eternity! Richard Baxter, in his profound book, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest ([Sovereign Grace Book Club], p. 151), writes,
Lord, what a strange madness is this, that men, who know they must presently enter upon unchangeable joy or pain, should yet live as uncertain what shall be their doom, as if they never heard of any such state; yea, and live as quietly and merrily in this uncertainty, as if all were made sure, and there were no danger! Are they awake or asleep? What do they think on? Where are their hearts? If they have but a weighty suit at law, how careful are they to know whether it will go for or against them! If they were to be tried for their lives at an earthly bar, how careful would they be to know whether they should be saved or condemned, especially, if their care might surely save them! If they be dangerously sick, they will inquire of the physician, What think you, sir, shall I escape, or not? But in the business of their salvation, they are content to be uncertain.
Someone recently told me of a young man whose family used to attend this church. He had become very successful in worldly terms. He picked up a friend to show him his new Ferrari, but never returned. They found the crashed car with the two young men’s bodies several days later. He gained the world, but may well have lost his soul.
The famous evangelist George Whitefield once told of seeing some criminals riding in a cart on their way to the gallows. They were arguing about who should sit on the right hand of the cart with no more concern than children who are going somewhere with their parents. It seems absurd that men who are about to die would be arguing about who gets the best seat in the cart! Yet isn’t that an indictment of us all? We’re all about to die! This life is so fleeting and uncertain. Eternity is ahead. Yet we devote ourselves to gaining position and possessions in this world, with no thought of the world to come!
The irony of Jesus’ perceptive statement is magnified by the fact that few of us ever come close to gaining the whole world. But even if we could do it, Jesus says, what good is it if we forfeit our own soul? Alexander the Great conquered vast territories and even ordered that he be worshiped as god, but he caught a fever and died at age 33. What good did his conquests do him in light of eternity? Just over 50 years ago, Adolf Hitler tried to conquer the world, but he ended up committing suicide when his plans failed. Some business tycoons, like Ted Turner, reject God and commit themselves to amassing a fortune. He owns more land than almost any other human being. But he soon will die and face God’s judgment with nothing to cover his sin.
How much wiser was Jim Elliot, who was killed at 28 trying to take the gospel to the fierce Auca tribe in Ecuador. At age 22 he had written in his journal, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” (Shadow of the Almighty [Zondervan], p. 15). Two years earlier he had prayed, “Lord make my way prosperous, not that I achieve high station, but that my life may be an exhibit to the value of knowing God” (ibid., p. 13).
The Christian life must be lived daily by keeping in view the shortness of this life and the insignificance of the things of this world in light of eternity. When he was just 19, Jonathan Edwards wrote down 34 resolutions that he committed himself to practice for God’s glory. Number 9 was, “To think much, on all occasions, of my dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death” (The Works of Jonathan Edwards [Banner of Truth], 1:xx). That may strike you as a bit morbid for a young man, but Edwards was seeking to live in the light of eternity. A few months later he wrote, “I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, That I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age” (ibid., 1:xxii).
To apply this, think about being at the end of your life. None of us knows how long we’ll live, but assume that the Lord gives you 80 years. In light of eternity, what would you want to accomplish as you look back on your life from that point? In light of this, write out a purpose statement that sums up what you want God to do through you in the years He gives you. Then write out some specific goals for the coming year in light of that overall purpose. Then, whether you live to be 80 or 40, you won’t spend your time trying to gain the world while losing your soul.
Although Jesus had just predicted His own rejection and death (9:22), He makes it clear that that will not be the final chapter. He will come again in His own glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. The apostle Paul describes that awesome event as a time “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thess. 1:7, 8). The Lord Jesus described His own “coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other” (Matt. 24:30, 31).
A main reason I should deny myself and take up my cross daily to follow Jesus is that He is coming again in power and glory to judge everyone. Either He will be ashamed of me on that day or He will confess me favorably before the Father and say to me, “Well done, good and faithful slave… Enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21, 23). I don’t know whether Jesus will speak to me in English or whether He will give me the ability to understand Hebrew or whatever language is spoken in heaven. But in English, you can tell by a person’s lips whether he is going to say, “Depart from Me” or “Well done.” I try to live each day so that when I stand before the Lord Jesus in all His glory, I see His lips form the words, “Well done.”
Note that Jesus says that there is the danger that we will be ashamed of Him and His words. He spoke often, more than anyone else in the Bible, about hell. Are you embarrassed to warn people about hell? It’s not a popular doctrine in our day of tolerance and relativism. It would be much easier to drop Jesus’ many references to hell out of our conversations with unbelievers: “Let’s take a more positive approach, telling them about God’s love, not about His judgment. It sells better.” I’m not advocating that we go to the other extreme and become insensitive, judgmental hell fire and damnation witnesses. But I am saying that if we do not lovingly warn people of the danger of hell and judgment, we are probably being ashamed of Jesus’ words.
Another hard thing Jesus spoke about is the inability of sinners to come to Him apart from the sovereign grace of God. Jesus spoke very plainly about this in John 6:26-65, where He repeats in verse 65 what He had already stated in verse 44: “No one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father.” This is a hard doctrine! Thus verse 66 states, “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore.” They didn’t like Jesus’ teaching because the doctrines of God’s sovereign grace humble the pride of the human heart. But we must bow before the hard sayings of Jesus, as well as the words that we like, if we confess Him as Savior and Lord.
To obey Luke 9:26, we have to elevate the fear of God above the fear of people. Later, in the context of repeating a similar warning about confessing Him before men (12:8, 9), Jesus says, “My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who after He has killed has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!” (9:4, 5). If we live each day in light of Jesus’ glorious return to judge the earth, we can daily deny self in order to confess Him before others.
In 1777, Dr. William Dodd, a well-known London clergyman, was condemned to be hanged for forgery (the penalties were a bit more severe back then!). When his last sermon, delivered in prison, was published, a friend commented to Samuel Johnson that the effort was far better than he had thought the man capable of. Dr. Johnson’s classic reply was, “Depend upon it, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”
If we would keep in mind that life is very short and that eternity is just ahead, it would concentrate our minds wonderfully! Even though it is difficult and painful, we would daily put self on the cross and follow Jesus because we will soon stand before Him on judgment day. Instead of getting caught up with the things of this world, we would live in view of the world to come. The reality of eternity is the motivation for living obediently now, even though it means a slow, painful death to self.
An Italian legend tells about a man who had a servant who was rather stupid. One day the master became exasperated and told the servant, “You’re the stupidest fellow I’ve ever known. I want you to take this staff and carry it with you. If you ever meet a man who is more stupid than you are, give him the staff.”
The servant took the staff. He met some pretty dumb men, but he wasn’t sure if they were dumber than he was, so he never gave away the staff. Then one day he was called back to the castle. He was ushered into the master’s bedroom, where the master was on his deathbed. He told the servant, “I’m going on a long journey.” The servant asked, “When will you be back?” The master replied that he would not return.
The servant asked, “Well, sir, have you got everything prepared for your journey?” The master said, “No, I’ve not really made much preparation for it.” The servant asked, “Could you have made preparation? Could you have sent something on?” The master said, “Yes, I guess I had a lifetime to do that, but I was just busy about other things.” The servant went on, “Then you won’t be back to the castle, to the lands, to the animals?” The master said he wouldn’t be back.
The legend says that the servant took the staff which he had carried for all those years and said to the master, “Here, you take the staff. I finally met a man who was more stupid than myself.”
We’re all going to take that journey. Jesus tells us how to prepare. Trust Him as Savior and follow Him as Lord, denying self even when it’s hard. One day you will see Him smile and say, “Well done!” Then it will be worth it all!
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
In attempting to speak on the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in His transfiguration, I identify with Peter, who felt that he needed to say something, but really didn’t know what he was saying! What can anyone say to describe or explain an event like this?
Peter referred back to this awesome spectacle when he wrote, “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from Go