Luke, Part 1 – Taking the Nations Back
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If you attend Refton, chances are you have heard the song Build Your Kingdom Here by Rend Collective. The chorus goes like this:
Build Your kingdom here, let the darkness fear
Show Your mighty hand, heal our streets and land
Set Your church on fire, win this nation back
Change the atmosphere, build Your kingdom here, we pray!
As I was studying Luke chapters 1 – 8, this song ran through my head like an anthem that’s played before battle. It’s a good, catchy song, but after this study of Luke I am guessing that you will never think of this song in the same way again. I know I won’t!
Before we begin I think it’s necessary to say that when we read scripture, we need to do our best to just let the Bible speak for itself. What I mean is that you and I have a worldview. The things we’ve experienced have shaped the way we think. That’s why if you decide to go on vacation to a different country, it’s always a good idea to do a little research on their history because their worldview will inevitably be somewhat different than our own. We will better understand the people outside our culture when we take the time to learn about theirs. The same is true with the Bible, except now we’re not only geographically removed, but we’re also 2000+ years beyond the culture in which the biblical authors lived. Our worldview is vastly different than theirs, and yet their worldview is the lens through which we glean biblical truths that apply to us today. So with that in mind, let’s begin!
*All scripture is HCSB unless otherwise noted*
Luke, Chapters 1 – 8
Luke 1:1 – 3:23
I’m more concerned with the ministry of Jesus in this study, but basically what we have in this section is a detailed account of the announcements and births of John the Baptist and Jesus. John ends up baptizing Jesus and a voice from heaven thundered: “You are My beloved Son. I take delight in You!” (3:22). The voice from heaven was God the Father. Luke (the author) also describes the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus like a dove. This is a key passage for discussion on the Trinity, but that’s beyond the scope of this article. I would like to begin with verse 23:
“As He began His ministry, Jesus was about 30 years old…” (3:23)
Luke includes a detailed (but not all inclusive) genealogy which shows that Jesus was from the line of David. This line extends back through the patriarchs who received promises from God (i.e. their descendants would be as numerous as the stars [Genesis 22:17]). It even goes back through Noah, who also received a promise, and then Adam, the first man. So while Jesus’ ministry technically begins at Luke 3:23, Luke is showing us that this has been part of God’s plan since the beginning of creation.
Luke 4:1-13
The Temptation of Jesus
Immediately after Jesus began His ministry, He was led by the Holy Spirit out into the Judean Wilderness. Let’s pause here and consider what the wilderness would have meant through the worldview of Luke. Luke grew up as a Gentile (a non-Jewish person) and would have been introduced to the Hebrew Bible, or what we call the Old Testament, somewhere along the way. The Hebrew Bible as he knew it had been compiled in his common language, Greek, about 300 years before he was born. He eventually became a follower of Jesus, which would mean that he rejected the Greco-Roman gods of his day; a gutsy move for anyone in the first century! Here’s the thing though: Luke would not have considered the Greco-Roman gods as imaginary made up cartoon gods that existed only in the minds of those who wanted to justify their preferred behaviors (see Paul’s perspective, 1 Corinthians 10:14-22). This is one disconnect between our (American) worldview and Luke’s. Luke had no problem knowing that his Hebrew Bible spoke of other gods besides THE God, aka: Yahweh (this is how I will refer to the God of the Bible for the remainder of this article). If that concept makes you uneasy as it initially did for me, read this.
Luke’s worldview included the unseen spiritual realm.
The wilderness, in the Old Testament worldview, was where the gods who rebelled against Yahweh would congregate. One passage that comes to mind is Leviticus 16:6-10 where Yahweh describes the process of a sin offering. One goat is to be sacrificed for Yahweh as a purification ritual (one cannot enter the presence of Yahweh without being made pure/holy). The other goat would symbolically have the sins of Israel placed on it and would be sent out into the wilderness, which was the realm of Azazel. You might be using a translation that chooses to use the word “scapegoat” instead of Azazel (like the NIV). The logic behind this is reasonable, except for the fact that Azazel in the Hebrew language is a proper name. In ancient Jewish literature, Azazel is depicted as the demonic leader of the spiritual beings (in other words, he’s Satan) that rebelled against Yahweh in Genesis 6:1-4 (Heiser, Unseen Realm, 176-177). Dr. Mike Heiser states that:
“The point of the goat for Azazel was not that something was owed to the demonic realm [the wilderness], as though a ransom was being paid. The goat for Azazel banished the sins of the Israelites to the realm outside Israel. Why? Because the ground on which Yahweh had his dwelling was holy. Sin had to be “transported” to where evil belonged – the territory outside Israel, under the control of gods set over the pagan nations … Azazel was getting what belonged to him: sin” (Heiser, 177-178, my addition and emphasis).
All things considered, it’s no surprise that Jesus was led out into the wilderness only to find Satan. Chances are you have heard this preached and taught numerous times. However, you may not have noticed the worldview disconnect when Satan says that he has been given authority over the kingdoms of the world. He says, “I will give You their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. If you, then, will worship me, all will be Yours” (Luke 4:6-7). The first thing to consider is exactly what authority has been given to Satan?
Luke and his first century readers would have hyperlinked back to the Old Testament story of the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). Humanity was bent on becoming like God and so they attempted to build a city with a tower for themselves that they thought would reach heaven (how they understood the universe was very different than ours, but that’s another topic). Yahweh and His heavenly host caused them to speak different languages, and ultimately Yahweh scattered them around the world. They then became separate nations. Deuteronomy 32:8 tells us that Yahweh decided to give them over to certain spiritual beings who would rule each nation (there were 70 nations [Genesis 10] and therefore 70 ruling spiritual beings).
8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance and divided the human race [Genesis 11], He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God [spiritual beings]* (Deut. 32:8, my additions and emphasis).
*Most translations will say “sons of Israel” instead of “sons of God.” This is an incorrect translation for the obvious reason that during the time Yahweh divided the human race, Israel was not yet a nation for hundreds of years. “Sons of God” is also by far the oldest translation since it is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, but also the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Old Testament, written around 250 BCE).
So apparently somewhere along the way Satan attained authority over all the nations but one, Israel (Israel was Yahweh’s nation, Deuteronomy 32:9). Satan then used that authority to tempt Jesus into submitting to Him. Why? Because Satan knew that Jesus was on earth to take back the nations, but he didn’t know how Jesus planned to do it. So he offered Jesus a carrot.
If Jesus accepted the offer, He may get the nations, but He would have just submitted Himself to Satan. It’s possible that Satan figured if Jesus would refuse his offer that he would divulge Yahweh’s plan, but that’s speculative. What we do know is that Jesus quotes scripture which says that we are to worship and serve only Yahweh. You see, we talk about “following Jesus,” but what we’re really saying whether we know it or not is that we are giving our allegiance to Jesus and no other gods. In Luke’s biblical worldview, there is no middle ground. Choosing no side is choosing a side other than Yahweh’s. This is a cosmic battle that no one can escape.
Following Jesus is giving our allegiance to Yahweh and no other gods
The fact that Satan tempted Jesus at the beginning of His ministry is significant. Satan knew exactly who Jesus was. Chances are that he heard the voice of Yahweh proclaiming that Jesus was His Son, which could be why Satan said to Jesus twice, “If You are the Son of God” (Luke 4:3, 9). Satan felt the urgency to somehow stop Jesus’ plan if he could. Obviously Satan knew there was no way he and the other rebellious spiritual beings (aka “gods”) would win the Holy War against Yahweh, but they are willing to do whatever it takes to prolong the inevitable.
Matthew tells us that Satan waited to tempt Jesus until the 40th day after Jesus had been fasting. Jesus was hungry at this point, and at His weakest. When Satan left Jesus, there were some angels that came to attend to Him (Matthew 4:1-11).
Luke 4:14-41
This Means War
After this, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit. Cue the awesome music because it was so on! Right out of the gate Jesus professes that He is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. He is the One who Yahweh had sent to proclaim freedom to the captives, recover the sight of the blind, set free the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Isaiah 61:1-2; Luke 4:18-19). Jesus did this in His own hometown, in the synagogue where He would have spent a lot of time learning, teaching and getting to know everyone. Jesus’ words ended up enraging everyone in the synagogue, so much so that they forced Him outside and took Him to the edge of a cliff with the intent of killing Him. But, His time had not yet come. Luke tells us that Jesus “passed right through the crowd and went on His way” (4:30).
The very next scene has Jesus confronting a man filled with an unclean spirit – a demon. The demon recognized Jesus, naming Him as the Holy One of God. Interestingly, the demon said to Jesus, “Have you come to destroy us?” At first glance one might think the demon is referring to himself and the man he indwelled. But assuming Luke’s worldview, this demon was referring to Satan and the other demons. The rebellious spiritual beings knew that Jesus was sent by Yahweh and that He had the power to finish them. He also possessed the authority to command them. Why? Because they knew that Jesus and Yahweh are one; unified and yet distinct (John 10:30; side note: considering that Jesus and Yahweh are one, yet distinct from each other, imagine if Jesus had submitted Himself to Satan and the implications of that!). Jesus commanded the demon to come out of the man and he complied. Luke records that the people were amazed and the news about Jesus began to spread all over the nearby towns. You can bet that the news was also being spread around the wilderness, among the rebellious spiritual beings (demons).
When Jesus went to Capernaum (a place where He spent a lot of His time before making the trip to Jerusalem at the end of His ministry), He visited Peter at his house. Jesus ended up healing Peter’s mother-in-law and news spread. Eventually Jesus was healing many people and casting out many demons. Again, these demons knew exactly who Jesus was. They began shouting that Jesus was the Son of God. So Jesus used His power to keep them quiet because He did not want them spreading around the fact that He was the Messiah (4:41).
Why in the world would Jesus do that?
We will see that Luke records several instances where Jesus wants to keep His identity secret, at least for now. But Jesus didn’t do that with the first demon, so why now? The first instance only involves one demon. The second involves many, and is in a populated area. Jesus didn’t want His secret out yet because as we’ll see, Satan and the rest of the rebellious spiritual beings who were against Yahweh did not know Yahweh’s plan. But what was the plan?
Luke 4:42 – 5:11
The Plan
If you’ve been attending church for just about any length of time, then you’ve probably heard the word “gospel.” It’s the “good news” of Jesus. What’s typically communicated is that this good news of Jesus is His life, death and resurrection, and that because He lived the perfect life that Yahweh required, then His death was a sufficient sacrifice for anyone who chooses to put their faith in Jesus. Hey, I’ve preached this – and it’s true! But it’s not the whole message. Here’s another worldview disconnect. We tend to view the Bible as a story about us and how God works to bring us back into a right relationship with Him. While that’s true, there’s so much more going on if we could only tap into Luke’s worldview!
Did you know there are 3 main fall stories in the beginning of the Bible (technically 4, but I’ll consider Cain and Abel as a result of the first one)? The first is probably familiar: the fall of mankind in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve both chose to disobey Yahweh and therefore gained the knowledge of good and evil. There are consequences to this disobedience, but as we read on in Genesis we see that things get progressively worse. The second Fall happened when some of Yahweh’s heavenly host decided to rebel by having sexual relations with human women (Genesis 6:1-4); the product of which were evil giant half-breeds. Yahweh wiped the earth of them, and everyone else except Noah and his family. Continuing on, we read that eventually the third Fall happens at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). We’ve already discussed this, but let’s recap because it’s an important key element in the worldview of the biblical authors. Yahweh scattered mankind over the whole earth and divided them up into nations. He put spiritual beings in charge of these nations (Deuteronomy 32:8-9). At some point, those spiritual beings became corrupt and desired worship [they were Yahweh’s rivals]; hence little “g” gods (e.g. 1 Kings 9:6, 9). Yahweh promised that these rebellious gods [elohim – see this discussion] would one day die like men (Psalm 82). Yahweh would eventually take His nations back through Jesus, the Son of God and Son of man, the Messiah, the Cloud Rider and our Savior. His plan also includes us!
Yahweh’s plan was to take His nations back through Jesus and His followers
This is what Jesus was talking about when He said, “I must proclaim the good news about the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because I was sent for this purpose” (Luke 4:43). The gospel always seems to be connected to the kingdom of God in the words of Jesus. Did you catch that He had to go to the other towns as well? He was spreading His good news. The kingdom of God was about to expand exponentially throughout the lands that were ruled by the corrupt spiritual beings. This was the reason why Yahweh sent Jesus. His purpose was to reclaim the nations, the people who did not know or serve Yahweh.
Although, Jesus knew He would need help.
It was time to round up some troops… err… fishermen. These guys were about to fish for people (Luke 5:10)!
Luke 5:12-16
Tell No One
Have you ever wondered why Jesus sometimes commands people (and even demons) to tell no one of the miracle they just witnessed? Luke’s preceding chapters and these five verses give us a glimpse into the reasoning behind Jesus’ words. The story takes place in “one of the towns” around Galilee where Jesus met a man with “a serious skin disease all over him.” Interestingly, the man recognized Jesus and had full confidence that Jesus could heal him. The man said to Jesus, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus then reached out His hand and touched him saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” After these words from Jesus, the man’s disease “left him.”
We will see as we go along that this is not the only story that Luke includes about Jesus touching someone and they are made clean. So what’s this all about? Well, Luke has the Old Testament story in mind where Isaiah finds himself standing in the throne room of God (Yahweh). The story begins with the description of the amazing things Isaiah sees, including Yahweh Himself! Isaiah is immediately panicked because he knew that standing near Yahweh is dangerous, which is why no one has ever seen Yahweh (John 1:18; 1 John 4:12)! Isaiah said, “Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). Just then a seraphim (not an angel) flew over to Isaiah. Using tongs, the seraphim had taken a glowing piece of coal from the altar of Yahweh. He touched Isaiah’s lips with the coal and said, “Now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed and your sin is atoned for” (Isaiah 6:7).
Why was Isaiah “unclean”? Well, it’s not that he was dirty. The notion of being either clean or unclean was a ceremonial term. In other words, Isaiah considered himself impure, and in order to stand before Yahweh, you need to be pure. Interestingly, the reason Isaiah considered himself unclean before Yahweh was because he had been in the presence of people who were impure. Somehow their impurity transferred to Isaiah simply because he was around them! In the same way, the coal represents Yahweh’s purity and was transferred to Isaiah through touch, rendering him cleansed from his wickedness and sin.
Back to Jesus and the man with the disease. The man’s disease automatically made him “unclean” in the eyes of the religious (Leviticus 13, 14:33-47). Jesus touched the man and he was “made clean.” What should happen is that Jesus would be made unclean since he touched the man, but instead the transference goes the other way and Jesus makes the man clean. So what was it about Jesus that He was able to remove the man’s disease? I believe it was the fact that He had the Holy Spirit in Him (Luke 3:22). We will see more examples of this as we read Luke and we’ll talk about the significance of it (The Bible Project has a great video pertaining to this topic).
Luke 5:17 – 6:11
Who’s in Charge?
What we know so far:
Jesus had the power to resist Satan
Jesus had the power and authority to command demons
Jesus had the power to heal people
Luke’s account is akin to a thoroughbred racehorse bursting from the start gate. Maybe that’s awkward imagery, but my point is that Luke wasted no time in letting his readers know that Jesus wasn’t messing around. His time had come to take the nations back, and He had the power and the authority to do it. But Luke wants his readers to know for sure that Jesus isn’t just some supercharged human being; Jesus is in fact Yahweh God in human form (the second person of the Trinity).
Luke continues with a story of when Jesus was teaching. The crowd was so dense that if you wanted to get close to Him, you needed to think outside the box! That’s exactly what some men did for their paralyzed friend. They took it upon themselves to dig a hole through the roof of the building, and then lowered their friend down in front of Jesus. I once heard Greg Stier preach about this account. He has sort of a personal link with Luke’s story in that he used to work on roofs. He explained that their plan to get their friend through the roof would have taken time to plan and execute. I think it’s safe to say that Greg was right because what roof could withstand a human sized hole without compromising the rest of the structure? Also, these guys were prepared with ropes to lower their friend down. Their idea was outside of the box for sure! Not only that, Jesus saw their true faith through their actions. Seeing what they did, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Friend, your sins are forgiven” (5:20).
Whoa… Jesus just claimed to forgive sin. That’s blasphemy in the eyes of the religious leaders! They said, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Then Jesus says something unexpected to His listeners. He said, “The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” As C.S. Lewis puts it, you don’t make this kind of claim unless you’re lying, or you’re crazy, or you’re actually telling the truth. Amazingly, not only did Jesus forgive this man’s sins, but He made him clean by curing his disease. Luke states in a rather manner of fact way that the guy simply picked up his mat and went home, “glorifying God” along the way! Matthew tells us that the crowds were left standing there awestruck by what just happened.
Luke then gives us a few more stories before letting his readers in on something stirring in the background of the narrative…
The religious leaders were “filled with rage” and began to formulate a plan
The Pharisees (a Jewish religious sect) were deeply offended by Jesus’ actions and words. They believed that Jesus was on the spiritual level of demons. They recognized His power, but they claimed that His power was from “the ruler of the demons” (Matthew 9:32). They could not have been more wrong.
Luke 6:12-36
A Growing Threat
I hope you’ve sensed the spiritual battle that is building as we’ve been going through Luke. The text is intentionally setting up the reader in this way. Luke’s next words, “During those days,” indicates that what he is about to describe happened during the days that the religious leaders were formulating a plan to take Jesus out of the picture. While that may be a familiar theme for you and I, what might not be so familiar is my conviction that there are evil spiritual forces at work in the background, essentially pulling the strings of events to push the religious leaders into a rage. My reasoning for this theory is due to the back and forth, push and pull effect that Luke is giving us through the stories that he is sharing.
Biblical authors intentionally choose the stories they write. Speaking for myself, I constantly need to be reminded that there was so much more the authors of the Bible could have included. Because of this, we need to remember to ask ourselves why the author chose to include any particular story. This is my #1 Bible Study Tip because the question moves us closer to the authors’ purpose.
Back to verse 12. Luke is a little vague on his time and place reference, isn’t he? That’s intentional as well. It’s a style of writing that should convey to the reader what’s really important. In this case, considering the previous verse, Luke’s point is that Jesus’ enemies, human and non-human, were growing in number. Jesus knew that eventually they would kill Him. It was time to invest in His own numbers. So Jesus “spent all night in prayer” (v12b). Notice that Jesus had more than 12 disciples (people that “followed” Him through learning and obeying what He was teaching). Actually, Jesus had A LOT more than 12 disciples. This is because anyone who follows Jesus is His disciple. However, in order for Jesus to ensure His mission to take back the nations would continue after He died, He knew that He needed to invest time into a smaller group.
When the morning came, Jesus asked His disciples to gather around Him, and He chose twelve of them, giving them the title of Apostle. An apostle was an official leadership position in the first century Church. The writings of Paul and our observances in the Gospels and Acts tell us that this designation is given to only those who personally knew Jesus. Those Apostles were also given authority by Jesus to perform miracles and deal with demons. The twelve Jesus chose were:
Simon (aka Peter)
Andrew (Simon’s brother)
James
John
Philip
Bartholomew
Matthew
Thomas
James
Simon the Zealot
Judas (son of James)
Judas Iscariot (eventual traitor)
Jesus and His disciples then come down to a level place where a large crowd had gathered. This crowd was filled with His other disciples and people from all over Judea and Jerusalem and beyond. Jesus was getting famous (and without social media I might add)! The crowds came not only to hear Him speak, but also to be healed and released from demonic oppression. Interestingly, they only needed to touch Jesus “because power was coming out from Him and healing them all.”
Luke now brings us to the Beatitudes – probably a familiar passage to most church goers. We can conclude through Luke’s grammar that Jesus said these things while He was surrounded by His disciples and the crowds. A careful Bible reader will notice, however, that Jesus’ words were only meant for His disciples. Matthew does not make any indication of this, which is why scholars debate as to whether Matthew and Luke were writing about the same historical event (it could have been two separate occasions where Jesus taught some of the same material). Regardless, Luke’s account is clear that this message is to Jesus’ disciples. Lets focus in on a few things that we might usually gloss over…
Jesus said to His disciples that “the kingdom of God is yours” (6:20)
Jesus is hinting at our future that is already but not yet. In a later writing, John gives us an idea of what we will be doing after Jesus comes back to bring final judgment. Jesus says in Revelation 3:21, “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.” In other words, Jesus is saying that we will rule the nations with Him (Revelation 19:15, NIV)! Paul even says that believers will judge angels!
Jesus followers are blessed when they are hated, excluded, insulted and slandered because of the Son of Man (6:22)
“Son of Man” is a phrase that originates in Daniel 7:13 (also alluded to in the first link of point 1). This is by far Jesus’ most used title of Himself. It is a Hebrew phrase which simply means “human being.” Daniel records that he saw in a vision a human being coming on the clouds of heaven, who then came before Yahweh God and His council. Yahweh gave Him all authority, and after the evil beasts were either cast aside or destroyed, every nation would worship this son of man. Incidentally, the people in Jesus’ day also knew that “the cloud rider” was not just human, but Yahweh in human form! How? Because every single reference to one who was riding or coming on the clouds in the Old Testament refers to Yahweh, except Daniel 7:13. This was indeed the God-Man, Jesus, the Savior of the world! Those who follow Jesus will naturally be persecuted in some way from those who do not follow Jesus. There is no middle ground in this Holy War.
“Your reward will be great in heaven” (6:23) // “Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High” (6:35)
“Sons of the Most High” is an interesting phrase that links back to Psalm 82. Psalm 82 (and John 10:34) is referring to rebellious spiritual beings which we would call fallen angels. These texts are in no way referring to human beings. Here is where we need to be careful with our “god” language. You and I will never be a God as Mormonism would claim (I hesitated to give a link because that article is incredibly misleading). We will be made into a little “g” god [a spiritual being], not in the way that Mormonism takes it, but rather, in the way that the Bible takes it (Check out Dr. Heiser’s video and journal article on this subject). The Hebrew word for “God” or “gods” is elohim (please read “God or gods?” and “The Problem with our English Word God“). Elohim is used for any disembodied spiritual being – human or not! Another way of putting it is that Elohim is a category of being that is used of anyone who finds themselves calling the spiritual realm their home. So then what does “sons of the Most High” mean? It simply means that we are Yahweh’s. The only modern example I can think to compare is being a member of the “Sons of Anarchy.” If someone called you a “son of Anarchy,” you would know that they meant you were affiliated with that group. In the same way, the title “sons of the Most High” means that you will be part of Yahweh’s group (there’s an “already but not yet” element to this as well).
Luke 7
It’s About Faith
Chapter 7 brings Jesus’ long sermon to a close as Jesus enters into Capernaum, known among Bible students as Jesus’ “base of operations during His public ministry” (FSB, Logos Bible Software). While there, at the request of a Roman commander, Jesus healed a dying girl without even going to her. Jesus did this because he was amazed at the soldier’s faith. Jesus said, “I tell you, I have not found so great a faith even in Israel!” After this, Jesus and His disciples traveled about 20 miles southwest to a village called Nain. This was where Luke’s first recording of Jesus raising someone from the dead took place. Luke notes that Jesus “touched” the coffin. When he did this, the pallbearers stopped and Jesus ordered the young man inside the coffin to get up. To everyone’s amazement, the dead man “sat up and began to speak” (v. 15).
Recall the discussion above that explained the act of “touching” being linked to making someone ceremonially clean. Luke places two healing stories back to back. In the first, Jesus doesn’t need to be in the presence of the sick girl. Naturally, no contact was made. But in the second occasion, Jesus touches the coffin. So why was Jesus able to heal the Roman commander’s servant without touching her? I mentioned earlier that my personal opinion is that Jesus was able to do these miracles because He had the power of the Holy Spirit in Him (not to mention God the Father), but I think the act of “touching” was symbolic. Jesus tends to link healings and faith. So were these healings dependent upon faith? I don’t think so. There are too many examples of healings and miracles without the mention of faith. Actually, I would hesitate to say that Jesus was dependent upon anything other than God the Father and His Holy Spirit.
Fast Forward a bit:
John the Baptist hears about Jesus
Jesus refers to Himself again as the Son of Man (His most used title of Himself)
Jesus is challenged by a Pharisee because in his mind an unclear sinner was touching Him
Jesus forgives the sins of the woman and claims that her faith has saved her
What exactly was she “saved” from?
We’ll get to that as we progress through Luke. However, I feel the need to explain that to say someone is saved from “Hell” is an oversimplification. I think that for most of us, our American worldview has been molded into this good place vs. bad place idea where you either exit life stage left or stage right (remember Heaven’s Gates, Hell’s Flames?). When compared to what the Bible says, pop-culture ideas on Hell are almost laughable. They would be laughable if it were not for the many, many people who were “scared into believing Jesus” are no longer Jesus followers. Hell is not this place where God is upstairs having a good ol’ time with His children, and the bad kids are downstairs in the basement being forever tortured by this red-horned, pitchfork wielding demon guy named Satan. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if the real forces of evil would like you to believe that.
Luke 8
The Holy War Intensifies
Luke begins chapter 8 with a summary (By the way: There were no chapters or verses when Luke wrote his letter – Those were added much later for quick identification):
Jesus was traveling from town to town
He was preaching the good news of the kingdom of God
His 12 disciples were with Him
Others were with Him as well
So what’s the good news of the kingdom of God? Is it that Jesus came and died for you so that if you say a sinner’s prayer and believe in Him you will then go to heaven when you die? Or could it be that there’s more to it? For Luke and the rest of the first century people listening, this wasn’t just about a personal salvation plan.
The good news of the kingdom of God was that Yahweh’s plan to take back the nations is in full swing! Demons are being shown who’s boss. The hearts of people are being changed. Many are abandoning their gods (those rebellious spiritual beings) and are turning to Yahweh alone. This revolution does not go unnoticed by the forces of evil. Things were beginning to intensify, and Jesus knew it.
I had mentioned earlier that Jesus would sometimes ask people not to tell others about certain miracles. This is something I’ve noticed for years, but always assumed there must have been a certain reason for the secrecy (and most articles like this I’ve read are not helpful). After some recent studies I’ve come to the conclusion that there are at least four reasons:
Jesus wanted to keep the crowds to a minimum because otherwise He couldn’t get into the towns (Matthew 8:4, Mark 1:44-55, Luke 5:14; Mark 7:36)
Jesus didn’t want everyone thinking that He was the Messiah because they would expect a conquering king (Matthew 16:20, Mark 8:30, Luke 9:18-21, 36; Luke 4:41)
Yahweh’s plan of resurrecting Jesus was a secret and Jesus needed to keep it that way (Matthew 17:9, Mark 9:9; Parables Luke 8:9-10; 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 ESV)
Jesus needed to instigate the forces of evil so that they would actually kill Him (Luke 8:39; Mark 9:2-8)
The first two are fairly obvious – I would like to focus on reasons 3 and 4.
Let’s begin with Luke 8:9-10:
Then His disciples asked Him, “What does this parable mean?” So He said, “The secrets of the kingdom of God have been given for you to know, but to the rest it is in parables, so that “Looking they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.”
Jesus often tells parables to the crowds, but have you noticed that He only ever gives their meaning to His disciples? Here’s the reason. The “secrets” (not mystery, since the information is knowable) of the kingdom of God were for Jesus and His disciples to know because if Yahweh’s plan were to be made known among the forces of evil, they would never have crucified Him. This is exactly what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (ESV), which says:
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
I think this is the reason as to why Jesus tells His disciples to explain these things after the son of man has been raised from the dead (Matthew 17:9). The fact is that the Old Testament is not incredibly clear that a suffering Messiah would have to die and be raised to life to break the curse of death. You’re probably thinking, yeah but, what about passages like Isaiah 53? “The word messiah never appears in that chapter, and elsewhere in Isaiah, the “servant” refers to the nation of Israel, not an individual savior (Isaiah 41:8; 44:1-2, 21; 45:4; 48:20: 49:3). And the word messiah, which means “anointed,” nearly always refers only to David or one of his descendants who reigned as king after him” (Heiser, Supernatural, 100). Heiser goes on to point out that “Even after the resurrection, the disciples had to have their minds supernaturally opened to see a suffering messiah” (101):
Then He told them, “These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. (Luke 24:44-45)
So Jesus kept Yahweh’s plan as a secret from everyone except His disciples – but even His disciples didn’t quite get it until after the resurrection (Matthew 17:22-23; Mark 9:30-32)! It’s easy for us today to see Yahweh’s plan all throughout Scripture, but no one would have expected a plan like this during the years of Jesus’ ministry. But it wasn’t enough to keep the secret, Jesus needed to instigate the forces of evil! And that will bring us into chapter 9 of Luke’s Gospel, which will begin Part 2 of this series.