LUKE 6-10 WHERE JESUS WALKED PART 22014 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 6-10 Where Jesus Walked Part 2

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2014.

This evening we are going to be looking at the Gospel of Luke chapters 6 through 10, which are the chapters that we read this week in going through the Bible in three years. We're working our way now through the New Testament. We looked at Matthew and Mark. We're now in the Gospel of Luke.

And really just spending a lot of time looking at the life of Christ and the things that he did. And then it's going to be really exciting as we get into the Gospel of John. Because, of course, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they're very similar. And there's a lot of, you know, the things that are written here in these three Gospels that are the same account.

different details here and there, but same overall, you know, message and same overall accounts, the different activities and miracles and parables. And then as we head into the Gospel of John, it's quite different though. And John focuses on very different aspects of the ministry of Jesus. And so we're going to be getting into that in a few more weeks and continuing to examine the life of Christ, which has been really refreshing and a great blessing.

Well, as we look at the Gospel of Luke this evening, we're looking at what he wrote somewhere between 55 and 60 AD. It's about 25 or 30 years after the life of Christ, after his resurrection. He finished this book, this record of the life of Christ, and then went on to write the book of Acts.

And so we have a general sense of the timing of when Luke wrote this because he wrote it before he wrote the book of Acts. Now Luke, as he goes through this, is really focusing on the humanity of Jesus Christ, really showing...

his reliance upon the Holy Spirit. We see lots more emotion in Jesus through the gospel of Luke than some of the other gospels. We see him breaking away from the crowds to spend time in prayer and that connection with his father is emphasized here by Luke. And so Jesus, of course, is God, but Luke also wants to remind us that he is also a man, that he really did, you know, have a body like ours except without sin.

And so he experienced hunger. He experienced thirst. He experienced fatigue. He knew what it was like to be human. And that's what we see here in the Gospel of Luke.

Now the geography of Luke is something we've been paying close attention to and we'll continue to do that this evening. But here's a quick look at the the nation of Israel in the day of Jesus Christ. And so there was different regions that were ruled by different rulers. But the kind of the key cities are Bethlehem where Jerry where Jerry no Jesus was born. Nazareth where Jesus grew up.

Capernaum, where Jesus moved to as an adult and based his ministries out of Capernaum. And then, of course, Jerusalem, where the temple was, ultimately where Jesus was tried and then crucified.

Well, that brings us now to Luke chapter 6 as we start our chapters for the evening. And the key verse is verse 12. Here's what it says. Now it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. Here again, we get to see one of those times where Jesus breaks away to spend time in prayer and he prays all night with the Father.

In verses 1 through 11, we see Jesus being challenged regarding the Sabbath by the religious leaders. This happens because the disciples, as they're walking through a grain field, begin to pluck some of the grain and separate it and then eat it. And the religious leaders said, that is forbidden. You cannot do that on the Sabbath.

However, that's not what God's word said. That wasn't what the law said, but that was the traditions that they had. And so they had added on to the requirements that God had set and had become more strict regarding the Sabbath than God was.

And so they challenge Jesus on that and he corrects them. And then they're challenging him again in verses 6 through 11 where there's a man with a withered hand in the synagogue where Jesus is teaching. And it's also on the Sabbath. And in the religious leader's opinion, it was a violation of God's law to heal somebody on the Sabbath.

Again, it was their traditions that brought them to this conclusion, not the actual scriptures, but they had become more strict about, you know, these things than God actually was. And so Jesus does heal the man with the withered hand, even though it is the Sabbath day.

Well, then in verses 12 through 16, he separates unto himself the 12 disciples and now calls them apostles. Now, this is the portion where it says there in verse 12 that Jesus was out on the mountain all night and continued in prayer all night unto the Lord.

And so you can see here, Jesus is about to make some, you know, well, he's about to appoint some people. He's about to select the apostles who will be the sent out ones who will go before him. And before he makes this big decision about who's going to do this, who's going to represent him, he takes some time and he spends all night in prayer with the Father.

And so again, in the humanity of Jesus, we see a great example here that as we have decisions to make, you know, and there are those that we need to appoint or there are things that we must do. He provides a great example here to make sure that we commit it to prayer and that we spend time with the Father so that when we make that decision, we are confident that we have His heart on the matter.

And so Jesus here spends time in prayer and then appoints his apostles. Then in verses 17 through 19, Jesus heals a great multitude. This was, of course, continuing the ministry of Jesus Christ. Everywhere he went, he was working miracles. He was healing people. He was delivering people from demonic oppression and possession. And so this was continuing on as Jesus continues to minister in the region.

Well, then in verses 20 through 49, we have what we often refer to as the Sermon on the Mount. And here it has passages that are very familiar to us. In fact, we refer to it as the Sermon on the Mount because of the reference to the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7. And Matthew 5, 6, and 7 are very, very similar to what we read about here in Luke chapter 6.

Now, some of the experts and scholars kind of wrestle with, you know, is this the same message just recorded differently by these two guys? Or is Jesus giving the same message in multiple places with slight variations? You know, and so there's all of those kinds of discussions that, you know, ultimately, I think, just kind of distract from, well, let's just see what Jesus says and let that impact our hearts. And so let's

Just look at a couple verses from this great sermon from Jesus. Starting in verse 21, he says, Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

Here, Jesus is teaching what we refer to as the Beatitudes. And so he goes through a series of, blessed are you in this condition, because then you'll be in that condition. And blessed are you when they do this, because then you will receive that. And so on and so forth. And these things are contrary to what we often think. So, blessed are you when you're hungry, because then you will be filled.

Now, we wouldn't normally think, you know, hey, I'm blessed when I'm hungry. We think I'm blessed when I'm filled. But Jesus is saying, you're blessed when you have that hunger. He's not talking a physical hunger. He's talking about a spiritual hunger. He's saying you will be filled. If you desire the things of God, God will meet you where you're at. God will fill that need. He will meet you there. He says, blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh.

And so, yes, things are hard. There's sorrow now. But he's also pointing towards the future, towards the eternal, where you are going to have great joy. And yes, it might be sorrowful right now as you are walking with the Lord and following the Lord. There are difficult things. There are hard things. There are hurtful things. But you're going to have great joy in the future. And so continue to be faithful to the Lord.

Jumping to verse 33, he says, So he's also now speaking to his followers and saying, okay guys, there needs to be a difference between you and everybody else.

And my life, Jesus is saying, needs to impact you in such a way that you are different than the world around you. That you're more like me. Now he says, look, if you do good only to those who do good to you,

then you're not any different than everybody else. That's what sinners do, Jesus says. That's what unbelievers do. They're nice to the people who are nice to them. As Christians, having been impacted by the life of Christ, Jesus says, you need to represent me well and be nice to those who are not nice to you.

Now, we sometimes kind of get in the flesh and we start thinking, you know, well, I don't have to be nice to them because they're not nice to me. I don't have to do good to them because they don't do good to me. But that's not the standard that Jesus holds us to. That's the standard of the world. That's the standard of unbelievers. Jesus says, you need to be good to do nice things for it. You need to care for it and love it.

those who hate you, those who hurt you, those who do things against you. And so a powerful standard that Jesus calls us to. Jumping to verse 42, he says, How can you say to your brother, Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrites, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye.

So here Jesus calls out one of our, you know, favorite pastimes, right? Picking out the faults in other people. We're really good at that. We enjoy that. And Jesus says, stop doing that because you're trying to help people with the speck in their eye and you're not paying attention. You've got a really big problem in your life and you're missing that, but you're still trying to help people with their problems. He's saying, you need to stop worrying about that.

First, allow God to do the work in you to remove the plank from your eye. And then when God's done that work, then you can help others with what is going on with them. Verse 45, he says, "...a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."

Here, as Jesus continues his message, he talks about our words. And he reveals here that our words come from our heart. Now, this is something we need to grasp hold of because a lot of times we like to blame others and we make the claim that they put those words in our mouth. That, you know, well, I don't normally talk that way, but you made me.

And so that's why I talked that way. I don't normally say those things, but you know, you put those words in my mouth. But here's what Jesus says. Out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. And so when that junk comes out of your mouth, it's not because somebody else put it there. It's because that junk is in your heart. But when your heart is good, when your heart is right with the Lord, then what comes out of your mouth are good things.

And things that build up and edify, like Paul would say in Ephesians chapter 4. Things that help people, that are beneficial to people. And so, it's highlighting for us here the source of the problem. The real issue that we need to be focusing on. If you're struggling with your words...

You know, you could try things like duct tape. You could try things like counting to 10, you know, before you say anything. You could try those kinds of things and that might help a little bit. But what you really need to work on is the heart, right?

And allow God to change your heart. You need to spend time with the Lord and allow Him to work within because what comes out of your mouth is a reflection of what's in your heart. So don't blame your words on somebody else or something else or some terrible situation. Recognize that those things are just revealing the condition of your heart. Well then in verse 48, He says...

That the one who hears his words and puts them into practice is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose and the stream beat vehemently against that house and could not shake it for it was founded on the rock. Here Jesus goes on to kind of conclude the sermon and say, okay, now you can take what I just shared with you and you can hear it.

And you can analyze it and you can compare it to Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7 and wonder was it in the same location or a different location. But if you don't take what I've said to you and then put it into practice, he says, well, when the storm comes, you're going to be wiped away. But if you'll take what I say and then focus on living it out, then you'll be like a man who builds his house upon the rock.

And then no matter what storm comes, you'll be able to stand because you've built your life upon the rock, Jesus Christ. But if you hear and you don't do anything about it, you don't work to put this into practice, then you're going to be swept away. Your house will crumble in the storm. That's what Jesus teaches.

Well, let's take a look at a couple places that are referred to here in Luke chapter 6. First of all, we see a reference to the mountain in verse 12 when Jesus gets alone to pray on a mountain. Now, I have a few different arrows coming from that because Jesus

It's not actually clear what mountain is being referred to here. And there's different suggestions by different authors. So it could be Mount Gerizim there in the south. It could be Mount Tabor a little bit farther north. It could be Mount Carmel on the coast.

Or, in my opinion, most likely, it was Mount Hermon in the far north where Jesus spent the time in prayer. But any of those could be different places that Jesus was. And to give you an idea, as we talk about different mountains, here's some of the peaks, the prominent mountains of Israel. Now, you'll notice...

Most of them are not what we would normally think of when we use the word mountain. Mount Hermon at the top is the highest. That's about 9,200 feet at its peak. So you could think about places like Mount Baldy. That's about 10,000 feet high. Big Bear Lake is about 7,000 feet high, but some of the peaks around it reach up to 9,000 feet high. So that's about the size of Mount Hermon.

But the rest of the mountains are pretty small. You have Mount Carmel, which is 1,791 feet in elevation. Now, to give you kind of a little bit of a point of reference, you and I today here at this address, we are at 604 feet above sea level. So right around 600 feet and higher.

If you think about, you know, some places around us that maybe you can relate to, I'm sure you're familiar with Beacon Hill in Norco, right? Right over there off the 15 or off Hamner and 5th Street. There's the cross at the top of the hill. That is just shy of 1,000 feet in elevation. So we're at 600. It's about 400 feet higher at just under 1,000 feet high. You might also be familiar with Sierra Peak.

Sierra Peak is right over here. It's right alongside the 91 freeway. You can actually get there from Skyline Drive and take up a good hike up to the top if you want. You probably refer to it or know to it as the peak right there that has the radio towers and stuff that are all right on top. Okay, that peak where those radio towers are is right about 3,000 feet high.

And so to give you kind of a sense, that's kind of the range that we're talking about here. Between a thousand to three thousand feet high, these are the mountains of Israel. So Mount Zion, about 2,500 feet high. So not quite as high as Sierra Peak right over here. Mount Moriah, 2,400 feet high. Mount of Olives, 2,600 feet high. So these are the kind of things that we're looking at. And so the

These are not huge mountains, but not quite hills either. You know, they're kind of in between, so little mountains. But another thing to keep in mind is they seem a lot higher when you're there because a lot of the elevations around the base of these mountains are below sea level.

So, you know, the Sea of Galilee up in the north is 700 feet below sea level. So if you're going from there then to 2,000 feet, you know, then it's a lot more elevation that you have to climb to get up to the peak of the mountain.

So they call them mountains. It is appropriate, but it also sometimes seems like, well, these are just foothills. And so that's just to kind of give you some perspective on what we're talking about here. So think about Beacon Hill. Think about Seir Peak over here. And those are kind of the range of mountains that we're talking about when we look at Israel. And so Jesus spent some time on one of these peaks.

with the father all nights in prayer and then came down and picked his apostles. All right, chapter seven. Now we won't spend as much time in every chapter, but I want to continue on now in verse 16 of chapter seven. It says, then fear came upon all and they glorified God saying, a great prophet has risen up among us and God has visited his people.

In verses 1 through 10, we see Jesus healing a centurion's servant. This is the time where the servant is sick. And so the centurion sends messengers to Jesus. And Jesus is on his way to the guy's house.

And he says, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He says, I'm a man under authority. I understand what authority is all about. You can just say the word and my servant will be healed. You don't have to physically be here. You can speak it and it will be done. And Jesus marvels at his faith because this guy really did believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be and that he has that authority.

Well, then in verses 11 through 17, you see Jesus raising a widow's son from the dead. And this took place in a city called Nain. Jesus enters into the city. He sees the dead man being carried out. He's the only son of a widow.

And so you can imagine her sorrow. She's lost her husband. She has one child and now that child is gone. And so now she's going to be alone and Jesus intervenes here and raises him from the dead.

In verses 18 through 35, you see Jesus teaching about John the Baptist. John is in prison at this time. He hears about Jesus and all the works that are going on, and he sends messengers to Jesus, and he says, hey, are you the Messiah, or is there somebody else that we're supposed to be waiting for? Now, this happened because John the Baptist had some expectations that, well, pretty much everybody in Israel had.

And that was when the Messiah came, he was going to set up a kingdom right then. And he was going to overthrow the Roman Empire. And he was going to establish Israel as their own nation once again. That was what they expected. And so Jesus now proclaiming himself to be the Messiah. John introduced Jesus as the Messiah. But now he's in prison and saying,

Maybe I was wrong. Are you not the Messiah? Because you're not doing what I thought you were going to be doing. Many times God works in ways that are different than what we expect. And in those times, like John the Baptist, we begin to have some doubts. We begin to wonder, did I really hear from God? Was that really, you know, what God wanted to say or what God wanted me to do? And so John is wrestling with that just like you and I do.

Well then in verses 36 through 50, you see that Jesus forgives a sinful woman. Jesus in this account is at the home of Simon, who is a Pharisee. And there is a woman who comes in and she is anointing his feet with fragrant oil. And she is weeping and she's wiping his feet with her tears and with her hair. And through this, you know, expressing great love for the Lord. Now,

Simon the Pharisee is like, hey, if Jesus is a prophet, then he would know what kind of woman this is and he would not allow her to touch him. Because the religious leaders, the Pharisees, thought we need to push those sinners away. But Jesus, his approach is quite different. He says, hey, I came to minister to the sick. It's the sick who need the physician.

I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners unto repentance. And so he begins to talk to Simon. He says, hey, if I forgive you a little debt and I forgive someone else a bigger debt, which one do you think is going to love me more? He says, well, I guess the one who's been forgiven the bigger debt, that's the one who loves the most. In the same way,

He says, Simon, you don't love me very much. You haven't cared for any of my needs. You haven't taken care of anything. But this woman loves me a lot because she's been forgiven a great debt. Yes, she is a sinner.

But she has been forgiven as she has turned to me. And so she has great love for me. And so this is a beautiful account here of Jesus receiving the sinful. And as we return or as we turn to Jesus and receive his forgiveness, we have great love for him.

Well, there's a few places mentioned here in Luke chapter 7 that we can look at. Capernaum, which we spent some time talking about last week, is up there on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. And that's where Jesus spent much of his time and he was always in and out of Capernaum during his ministry.

Then we see him in the city of Nain in verse 11, and that's where he raised a man from the dead. We'll take a look at that in just a moment. And then there's a place, it's not mentioned by name, but down in the south on the east side of the Dead Sea.

is a city called Machaerus or something like that. And here is where probably John the Baptist was, and it was from here that he sent his disciples to go meet up with Jesus and say, hey, are you the Messiah or not? Now, he was in this place, in this city, because it was Herod Antipas who put him in prison.

Herod ruled over the region of Galilee as well as the region of Perea. So if you can look here on the map, you see the two purple sections, Galilee there in the north and then Perea on the other side of the Jordan River. That was the regions that Herod Antipas ruled over. Of course, you know Pilate ruled over Judea and that area. And so that's the area that was outside of Herod's control. But

and Perea. That's where Herod ruled. And one of his prisons was there in the south. And Josephus tells us that that is the location where John the Baptist was held. And so it was from there that he heard about Jesus and the things that were continuing to go on. Of course he knew Jesus, but he heard about the miracles that were happening and he sends his messengers to Jesus to find out what's going on. Well the city of Nain is

is about 21 miles from Capernaum. And so it was here that Jesus went to minister to this widow who had lost her son. It was located in the portion of land that was given to the tribe of Issachar. And its name means lovely or charming or it's like a beautiful place.

And so it's a place that wasn't very big. It still exists today. It's not very big. It's about 1,600 in population today. It's about 685 feet in elevation, so not very different from where you and I are today. And this is really important to understand, not because you have to know exactly all the elevations, but it gives you kind of a glimpse of the climate. So if you wonder, hey, what's the weather like in Nain?

Well, it's a lot like where you are today and what you experience today. So the nation of Israel is a lot like Southern California in a lot of ways. Now, not exactly, but there's a lot of parallels. And so you can get a little bit of a sense of what it was like there as Jesus was doing these things.

All right, chapter 8 now, verse 1 is the key verse. It says, Now it came to pass afterward that he went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and the twelve were with him.

In verses 1 through 3, it tells us that there were many women who provided for Jesus in his ministry. It names a few of them. It's people we're mostly familiar with. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, but then it goes on to say, and many others. And so they had this unique opportunity. They came alongside the ministry of Jesus once.

to meet his physical, his practical needs. And so they were helping provide, you know, his food. They were helping provide what he needed as he was ministering to the multitudes and teaching the people. In verses 4 through 18, Jesus gives us the parable of the sower.

It's one of those classic parables that we're very familiar with. The sower goes out to sow his seed. As he's casting out the seed, it's falling on four different types of soil. The wayside or the path, which is all beaten down. He sows.

He throws it on the rocky soil, which is not soil with a bunch of rocks in it, but it's a big rock with a little bit of soil on it. And then he throws it, or the seed is cast upon the thorny soil. And so this soil has all kinds of weeds and thorns in its midst. And then he also sees the seed that's cast on the good ground.

And he represents this. He says, look, this is the word of God falling upon different kinds of hearts, different kinds of soils that represent our condition and how we receive the word of God.

Now, this is always good for us to meditate on and consider because it's not just, you know, the gospel message that Jesus is referring to, but it's all of his word. And so we want to, you know, maintain the soil of our hearts so that we have good soil that whenever we are in the word of God, that we're allowing God's word to have its full effect in us and produce the fruit of

That God wants to produce. And so we don't want to have a hardened heart. Where the birds come and steal the word away. So that you know the word kind of comes. But it just sits there. It doesn't penetrate. It doesn't do anything. We want to receive the word of God. We don't want to just let it sit there. We don't want to let it go in one ear and out the other.

But make sure when you open the Word of God that you're receptive, that you're allowing it to enter in and to make a difference. But then also we want to make sure that we don't have rocky soil. That is, we're not just on the surface receiving the things that God is speaking. That it's not a shallow faith that we have or a shallow belief in the things that we're reading.

But that it reaches deep within us. The problem with the soil on the rock was that it was warm because it was shallow. And so it would spring up really quickly.

And so it would respond, it would react very quickly, but it wouldn't last because it didn't have any substantial roots. And what we want to make sure is that our hearts are not hard like on the top where we're the path or just a little bit lower either where there's a little bit of reception to the word of God. But yeah, if it gets hot, you know, I can't handle that. And so you can't endure because...

There's not much depth. And so we need to make sure that there's depth to our faith, that there's depth to our hearts and our relationship with God, that we could withstand the heat, the hot times.

But then also we need to care for our hearts and make sure that we're weeding it out, that we're taking out the thorns. Jesus said the thorny soil represents those who receive the Word of God. So they allow it to enter in. It begins to take root. It begins to grow.

But then the thorns wrap around it and choke it out. Steal away the nutrients, the resources that it needs. And so it cannot survive because of these thorns. And Jesus says, this is those who receive the word, but then it's choked out by the cares of this life. By comforts and pleasures, by the things of this world. And so we need to maintain the soil of our hearts to make sure that we are not allowing the things of this life

to become too important to us so they don't choke out the things of God. How many times do we hear, you know, well, I don't have time to read the Bible. Well, that's the thorny soil overtaking. That's the thorns overtaking the word that's implanted. I don't have time to go to church. I don't have time to serve the Lord. I don't have time. That's a problem and we need to maintain our hearts and pull out those weeds that are choking out the things of God in our life.

And so if there's those kinds of things in your life, make sure that you don't allow it, that you don't put up with it, but that you get rid of those things that are taking away from what God wants to do. And so ultimately, we want to have good ground. That is that our hearts are open and receptive to the things of God, that we allow His Word to penetrate deep within, to make a big difference, that it would impact us, that we would base our life on what Jesus says.

So that it would go deep and it would not be distracted by the things of this life. But focused on the things of God. And Jesus says, then you will produce great fruit. In verses 19 through 21, you see Jesus' mother and his brothers try to come and get Jesus. We learn from, I think it's the gospel of Mark, that they thought Jesus was kind of crazy. He'd lost his mind and so they're trying to rescue him.

But they can't get in because there's too many people. And so the word comes, you know, forward through the crowd. Hey, your mother and brothers are outside. And Jesus responds in verse 21. My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. And so Jesus over and over again is emphasizing the necessity of doing the word of God. Putting into practice and living out the

The things that he teaches. And that's more important to him than even his physical relationships with Mary and his brothers.

Well, then in verses 22 through 25, Jesus commands the storm. He calms the storm with his words. Now, the Sea of Galilee is kind of known for its storms because there are high winds that come off of Mount Hermon. Remember, Mount Hermon is about 9,000 feet high. The Sea of Galilee is negative 700 feet. And so the winds come down and they come rushing down and then they blow across the Sea of Galilee and they cause these storms

Pretty intense storms that can come upon it.

it. And so they're in the midst of this. The disciples, remember they're fishermen. So this isn't like, you know, you're out in the boat. It's your first time off the land and you're like, oh no, it's rocking. You know, I'm scared. No, it's not like that. These are fishermen, experienced guys on the sea and they're fearing for their life. And so this was a massive storm. They were pretty sure they were going to die. But Jesus, of course, speaks his word and the storm is calmed.

Then in verses 26 through 39, Jesus heals a man who is demon-possessed.

It was a guy who is possessed really by many demons. And as Jesus commands them to go out, they begged Jesus that they would not be cast into the abyss. That is the place where demonic spirits are imprisoned until the end. And so in verse 33, Jesus gives them permission and they enter in to that herd of pigs or swine and they run off the hill into the water.

Then in verses 40 through 56, Jesus heals a woman and raises a girl from the dead. So there's two things happening here. He's on his way to the little girl and

But a woman who has been troubled with, describes it as a flow of blood. So she's had some kind of issue of blood for 12 years. She's spent everything that she's had trying to resolve this and be healed. But we learn from this account and from the other gospel writers that the end result was she was worse off now than when she had first began spending her money to go to the doctor.

And so now she's in just desperation and she comes and she decides, if I just touch the hem of his garments, I'll be healed. And so Jesus is on his way to the little girl. There's people crowding around him and she kind of sneaks in and she touches the hem of his garments and she is healed. And so we see Jesus stop and the disciples are like, hey, what's going on? He's like, someone touched me.

you know what it's like, you know, maybe to be at a stadium or something like that and you're like bumped around all over the place and the disciples are like, yeah, everybody's touching you. I mean, it's crowded. But Jesus says, no, someone touched me with faith. There's power that went out from me. And she finally comes forward and he says, daughter, your faith has made you well and go in peace. And so he heals her and gives her great assurance. And

Well, then he is about to go on to this little girl who is sick and servants come and say, hey, don't bother Jesus anymore because she has died. And so he looks over to her dad and says, hey, don't be afraid. Just believe. Just believe and everything's going to be okay. And so he continued on. The people laughed at him when he said, no, she's not dead. She's asleep.

They knew she was dead, but Jesus knew what he was about to do. And he says, little girl, arise. And he raises her from the dead. Jesus has the power to heal, to calm the storm, to raise the dead. He is who he claimed to be. Well, a couple of locations here in Luke chapter 8 that we could consider. We have Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. Again,

The base of Jesus' ministry. So we see it a lot. And so there the multitudes waited for Jesus' return. He went from there across the sea and then came back to Capernaum and the crowds were waiting for him.

And then in verse 26, it refers to the Gadarenes. Now the Gadarenes were on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. It was about seven or eight miles across the sea from Capernaum to that region. It refers really kind of to the whole region. It's not a specific city or a specific point on the map. It's

but includes kind of the main cities like Gergesa, Hippos, and Gadara, which is a little bit off the map that you can't see it, but

It's that region there. And so Jesus went somewhere on that side of the Sea of Galilee to minister to that man who is demon-possessed. What I always love about this account is that you see Jesus, he's in Capernaum, he goes across the sea, ministers to that one guy, and then goes back to Capernaum and continues his ministry there. And so you see Jesus going way out of his way, crossing the sea, to reach one guy, to minister to one person.

And it's just a great reminder to me of how important each person is to the Lord. That he's not, you know, just concerned with everybody as a collective whole. He's concerned with each individual. And he'll go out of his way because he cares for each individual.

Well also in Luke chapter 8 verse 1 it tells us that he went through every city and village and he was ministering and teaching and such. And so here's kind of a closer up look at the region of Galilee. And this isn't exactly every city and village but it's just a bunch of them to kind of give you a sense.

You know, it wasn't like one or two cities, a couple villages. You know, there was quite a few places. And Jesus was going from place to place to place to place, ministering, healing, teaching, and proclaiming that he is the Son of God. Well, that brings us now to Luke chapter 9, verse 51 is the key verse. It says, Now it came to pass, when the time had come for him to be received up, that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.

In verses 1 through 6, Jesus sends out the 12 apostles. He gives them power. He gives them authority. And he sends them out to proclaim the message and to work miracles. And so they also, it says in verse 6, went through the towns preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. So they're going all over the place now too and spreading the word about Jesus.

Through that, Herod hears about Jesus. In verses 7 through 9, we see that Herod seeks to see Jesus. He hears about him and he decides, man, I need to see who this guy is and find out what's going on. Now, this Herod is Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas is the son of Herod the Great.

Herod the Great is the one who did and began the construction work on the temple and made it absolutely beautiful and glorious and all the gold. And we've been talking about that for a couple weeks. But Herod the Great is also the one who, remember, when the command was given to put to death all the babies in Bethlehem?

Because they heard about the Messiah being born. And were threatened by it. And so that was Herod the Great who gave that command. Well his son is now on the throne. Herod Antipas. He reigns there in the region of Galilee. And so he hears about Jesus.

And he says, hey, I wonder if this guy is John the Baptist raised from the dead. Because Herod Antipas is also the guy who beheaded, he killed John the Baptist. And so he thinks, oh no, he's coming back to get me. And so he's thinking, maybe this is John the Baptist. Who is this guy? And so he has a desire to see Jesus. He won't get to see him until Jesus is about to be crucified.

In verses 10 through 17, we have the familiar account of Jesus feeding the 5,000. He takes the five loaves and the two fish and he feeds 5,000 men. In addition, there was women and children that we don't know how many there were. And so he provides for them miraculously in this way. Then in verses 18 through 20, we see Peter referring to Jesus as the Christ.

He takes them up to the northern part of Israel. He says, hey, who do the people say that I am? They listed off people like John the Baptist and Elijah, different prophets that people were speculating that Jesus might be. But then he says to them, well, who do you say that I am? And Peter has a great revelation from God here. He says, you are the Christ. That is, you are the Savior that God has promised. You are the Christ of God.

Then in verses 21 through 27, Jesus goes on to proclaim his death to his disciples. So he's saying, you know, good job. You recognize who I am. Now here's what you need to understand. Remember John the Baptist's expectations? I'm not going to start my kingdom right now physically here on the earth. I'm coming instead to deal with the issue of sin.

And I'm going to do that by dying on the cross. I'm going to be betrayed and rejected and be killed and then I'll raise again the third day.

And so he's explaining, you know, yes, I am the Christ, but don't let that confuse you, you know, with your expectations of the Christ. No, there's more that has to be fulfilled. And the things that they expected Jesus to do, that's the things that Jesus will do when he comes again for the second coming. Then he'll establish his kingdom. But what's interesting here is in verse 23.

And says,

So Jesus here explains to them, okay, not only is what you expect about me not going to happen, but what I'm going to expect about you is that you follow in my footsteps and take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow me. That I'm going to die and suffer and be rejected, and I'm going to call you to do the same. I'm going to call you to follow my example and

To put me first, to deny yourself, and to follow me. And he says, take up your cross daily. It's such a good reminder that it's not something we do one time. But, you know, each day we have to make the decision to put God first. Each day we have to make the decision to follow Jesus and recognize, even though it's going to cost me,

Even though I'll have to deny myself, I'm going to follow Jesus. And as he walked in that way and went to that death, we also are to deny ourselves and follow him even unto death.

Because again, as we looked at in Luke chapter 6, the blessings that are promised are in eternity. He blesses us in this life, sure. But the fulfillment of really God's promises are in eternity. And that's what we're looking for. That's why it's worth it to follow Jesus, even if it costs us our life, even if we have to deny ourself, even if we have to take up our cross. Because in eternity is when God has great rewards for us.

Well, then in verses 28 through 36, Jesus is transfigured. He takes Peter and James and John up on a mountain with him. There Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus. He's brilliantly white here, glorious and shining. You know, Peter has a good idea. He doesn't want it to end as he sees him kind of like heading away. He says, oh, let's build three tabernacles and we can stay around for a while.

And then the heavenly father speaks and says, this is my beloved son, hear him. And so a glorious revelation of who Jesus is and his glory there before these disciples. Well, as they come down the mountain in verses 37 through 42, they encounter a crowd and the rest of the disciples are there. And there's a boy who is demon possessed.

And Jesus now heals this boy and delivers him from the demon that was possessing him and hounding him. The disciples that had been, you know, down the mountain were trying to and they were unable to. But Jesus comes and sets him free. Then in verses 43 through 50, Jesus teaches about greatness.

First, he reminds them, guys, I'm about to suffer and be rejected. And I love the way Jesus says it because it just reminds me that, you know, the disciples were really not any different than you and I. Check out verse 44. He says, let these words sink down into your ears. You get that? I like that. Let it sink in, guys. You're not getting it. You kind of have wayside hearts right now. I told you about

and rejection, but it just kind of bounced off. He didn't let it penetrate. Let it sink down into your ears. Really receive what I'm about to tell you. The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men. The disciples still didn't get it though. They couldn't grasp what Jesus was talking about. And instead, what he's telling them prompted them

To then have a discussion and dispute about which one of them was the greatest. So you could see they were missing it. And again we see this. We can relate to them because they are a lot like us. It is amazing as you look through the scriptures. How you can see that the people that God used...

were regular people. They weren't, you know, super amazing scholars. There's maybe a few exceptions where they are. But for the most part, you know, they were people who didn't get it, who didn't fully understand, who missed the points, who had to be told three or four or five times before it finally made sense to them. And so here they are disputing who's going to be the greatest as Jesus is telling them that he is about to be betrayed. Now Jesus goes on to teach them

That he who is least among you will be great. And that's the important thing. He doesn't rebuke them for desiring to be great in God's kingdom. He just tells them how to do it. Be the least. Be the servant of others. Be the servant of all if you want to be great in the kingdom of God.

Well, then in verses 51 through 62, we see that Jesus begins his final journey to Jerusalem. Verse 51 tells us that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.

And so what's happening here is Jesus now is coming to the end of his ministry. So Luke is not attempting to give us, you know, exactly timed and everything, you know, in chronological order and, you know, the same amount of attention to every part of Jesus's ministry. Jesus ministered for about three and a half years. And so here in chapter 9, we're now looking at the final stretch of his ministry. Okay?

We don't know exactly how long that was, but it wasn't a long period of time. It wasn't more than a year probably because he would go to Jerusalem every year for the feast. And so this was those final months for Jesus as he was making his way to Jerusalem. He's going to be winding around, you know, so going town to town, zigzagging a little bit. It's not a straight shot that he does.

But it's his final journey. It's his final stretch, his final tour. And then he's going to be in Jerusalem and be crucified. And so he's now set his face for this. He's preparing himself for this final journey to Jerusalem. We see also in this account, though, as he has set his face towards Jerusalem, he goes to a village that's located in the area of Samaria.

And they will not receive Jesus. They say, no, you can't stay here. Move along. And so as Jesus is, you know, heading towards Jerusalem, he's not welcomed in this place. And the response of the disciples is a little bit comical. In verse 54, it says, And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did?

But he turned and rebuked them and said, You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. So again, you see that the disciples didn't always get it. They said, Hey, they're not going to let you stay there. Let's call down fire. Wipe them out. Jesus says, No, no, no. That's not what I came here to do. I'm not here to destroy people. I'm here to save people. And that's something we need to remember. Man, there is such...

a spirit of destruction amongst people these days. It's just a tearing down here and there and criticizing and all kinds of things that we do destructively towards one another. And when we do that as believers, we are demonstrating that we really don't know what kind of spirit we're of. Jesus came to save people. He came to set people free. He came to deliver people

not to destroy. And we need to be following in the example of Jesus Christ. Well, a few locations mentioned here in chapter 9. We'll just start at the top there, Caesarea Philippi. That's where Jesus took his disciples and said, who do the crowds say that I am? It's in the very north of the nation of Israel. Bethsaida, that's where Jesus took his disciples aside privately to talk with them, but then ended up feeding the 5,000.

The mountain, here again we have a reference to the mountain. We don't know exactly which mountain it was. It could have been Mount Tabor. That's what many people believe. And that's the lower location. It also could have been Mount Hermon up in the far north, which is the much bigger mountain. And it was there that Jesus was transfigured.

You have Tiberias. That's where Herod was located, right there on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. He heard about what Jesus did. And then also we refer to Samaria. This is kind of a central region of the nation of Israel. And it was occupied by the Samaritans. And the Samaritans were kind of like half-breeds. They had, you know, one parent that was Jewish and one parent that was not Jewish.

kind of you know summarizing it briefly that's kind of what they were so so they were hated they were despised but they were located centrally and so uh it was in one of those villages that jesus was and he was rejected and they wanted to call down fire from heaven

So Tiberius is there. It's on the Sea of Galilee. This is the headquarters really for Herod Antipas. And so his, you know, home is there. And there he hears about Jesus and he wants to see them. It was built in about 18 AD. So a little bit before Jesus began his ministry.

It was a beautiful place. And in fact, if you go on an Israel tour today, it's one of the places that you'll stay. It's really nice and beautiful right on the coast of the Sea of Galilee. Bethsaida is also mentioned here. It's a little bit north of the Sea of Galilee. And it was the place that Jesus was when he was feeding the 5,000. It was, well, in the region alongside of Bethsaida.

Caesarea Philippi is in the far north and Jesus went there from Bethsaida. It's about a 23 mile journey to go up there. And it's about 1100 feet in elevation. It's right at the base of Mount Hermon.

And it's also the location of one of the main springs that feeds the Jordan River. We talked about that last week. There's four main sources that come in and form the Jordan River. And so this is one of them. It's the source of this spring that is in Caesarea Philippi. Here's a picture from Caesarea Philippi. So this is from in 2006 when we went to Israel.

And so you have a couple things here. You have this rock. It's a huge rock that's at the base of Mount Hermon. It's about 100 feet high or over 100 feet high in some places. And so it's this huge like granite rock. And so you can kind of picture Jesus telling Peter, upon this rock, right? When he says, you are the Christ. He says, upon this rock.

I will build my church. Not physically, but he's saying that statement that Jesus is the Christ is that kind of rock. It's a huge rock and it's the basis for the church of God.

This place was also though a place where the Greeks would worship all kinds of false gods, all kinds of idols. And so they had this cave where they said the Greek god Pan was born there. And then they had all these niches. You can kind of see them a little bit. These places carved into the rock where they would put all kinds of different idols. And so they would worship a variety of gods there.

That big cave on the left, that was actually where the spring comes out. And then it kind of flows down and you can see it down here at the bottom of the picture. And so that spring continues on and then becomes part of the Jordan River a little bit later on. All right, final chapter, chapter 10, verse 1. It says,

In verses 1 through 12, Jesus sends out the 70. So we saw him send out the 12. Now he calls out 70 more of his followers and sends them out to the places where he was about to go.

Then in verses 13 through 16, Jesus pronounces some woes to Chorazin, to Bethsaida, and to Capernaum. He says, woe to you if the miracles that were done in other places or were done there with you had been done in other places, they would have repented. But you have seen these great miracles, these great works, and you've not repented.

In verses 17 through 24, the 70 who were sent out now return with joy. And they're like, whoa, it's so exciting. God was working and people were set free and people were healed. It was amazing. And so they're rejoicing over all the things that God did as they went out ahead of Jesus. Then in verses 25 through 37, Jesus gives us the parable of the good Samaritan. One of the teachers comes and says, hey, what should I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus says, well, what do you think? And he says, well, you know, I follow the law. And so he lists off some of the commands. And Jesus says, yeah, that's good. Do that.

And it says in verse 29 that this guy says, well, who is my neighbor? Because he wants to justify himself. The command is to love your neighbor as yourself. So who's my neighbor? Who exactly do I have to love this way? And so Jesus gives this parable of the Good Samaritan. It's about a guy who's traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. He gets mugged.

thieves come, beat him, take everything he has and leave him to die in the road. And a couple people walk by. There's a priest who walks by, but he goes out of his way. He's like, ooh, I don't want to have to deal with that. And then a Levite comes by and he goes out of his way. I don't want to have to deal with that. But then a Samaritan comes. Now this is significant because the Samaritans were hated because again, they were part Jew, but not all Jew. And so there was this kind of racism that was going on.

But he stopped and cared for this guy. And he met his needs and provided for him and nursed him back to health. And so Jesus concludes saying, so which one was a neighbor to him? Was it the priest? Was it the Levite? Or was it the Samaritan?

And he wouldn't even say, you know, oh, it was a Samaritan. He said, oh, the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said, go and do likewise. So the point was, he says, who's my neighbor? Who do I have to love like this? And Jesus says, whoever you come across that's in need, that's the one that you need to love. That's the one that you need to care for.

Then in verses 38 through 42, you have Mary and Martha serving Jesus. Jesus is at a home. Martha is busy, you know, making preparations and doing stuff. And Mary's kind of hanging out at the feet of Jesus, listening to what he has to say. And she gets upset by this, Martha does. And she's like, hey, tell my sister to, you know, to help me because there's a lot of stuff to do.

And Jesus says, hey, you're distracted by many things. But Mary's chosen something that's really good and it's not going to be taken from her. And so he encourages Martha to not be so distracted. It's something that we can do. We can get caught up in being distracted with a lot of good things. There's a lot of good things that we can do.

But then we get frustrated because we're not spending time with Jesus. And so we need to find the balance of spending time with Jesus so that we can do what he's called us to do and not just doing good things and then we're too busy to spend time with Jesus. Well, a few last locations to check out here. Or maybe not. I just lost control. All right, well, let's end there.

Spend time with Jesus. That's what's important. Don't get distracted by the slides that don't work. Spend time with Jesus. That's what he wants. He wants you to spend time with him. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your goodness towards us, your graciousness. Lord, thank you that even though, like the disciples, we don't always get it right away.

Lord, it takes some time and you have to tell us a few times for us to really catch on. But Lord, I pray that you would continue to be patient with us, that you would speak to our hearts. And Lord, as we hear your voice, I pray that you would allow your word to penetrate deep within our hearts.

Lord, that it break through any rocks that are there. Lord, that we would be faithful to remove anything that's going to choke out your word. And Lord, that we would just be fully receptive and open to sit at your feet, hear from you, and then do what you say. Lord, that our lives would be built upon the rock and able to withstand any storm. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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