Luke 9:1-17 Bible Teaching

WELCOME
PRAYER
SONG
SILENCE

Alright – let’s get into chapter 9 of Luke!

Luke 9.1-
September 29th 2019
Meat

Luke 9:1 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.
2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.
3 And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.
4 And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart.
5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.
6 And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.
7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him: and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead;
8 And of some, that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again.
9 And Herod said, John have I beheaded: but who is this, of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him.

Luke 9:1 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.

This account of sending the apostles forth is recorded also in Matthew and Mark 6:7-11.

Mark provides us the detail that Jesus sent them out “two and two” which obviously was a means to visit more places while providing protection to them as they went.

As we are well aware by now the word “apostle” means “one that is sent,” and the was given to them because they were sent forth to preach the gospel as His ambassadors.

This is a classic case of the Greek being one word – apostle – and the English being two – one sent. The term does not convey an office of an Apostle but conveys the fact that these 12 were the Ones Jesus Sent – get it?

We tend to think that the term apostle is an office. It’s not. Were “the ones” Jesus sent given power and authority to do things in His name? The “ones sent” were, but they were not made Apostles and upon being called as Apostles were not given Apostolic powers that came with an office. They were called by Jesus to be sent, that is WHY they were called apostles.

Later, after Judas kills himself, the other ones sent decided at Peter’s hand to choose another person to send forth. The qualifications of this soul was that they had been with them from the beginning and had witnessed everything that Jesus had done. Why? Because they would then be sent out to share what they had witnessed – especially His resurrection!

The lot fell to Matthias who was added and we never hear a word from him again.

But the one God wanted to send at this point was of another makeup and would be named Saul.

And God would send Him to the Gentiles.

The other ones sent of the original witnesses began to get killed off, and they were not replaced. To me it seems that the Matthias choice to replace was an error that the original knew that they had made because the outreach to the Jews was commensurately diminishing in numbers as they drew closer and closer to the end of that age.

But if you want an actual number of ones sent, we would say it was fourteen – with thirteen being sent by Jesus and one being sent by the other ones sent.

It seems that there was probably some correlation to the twelve tribes of Israel when Jesus chose twelve men but this is not certain.

The call on their life was clearly made known to them according to verse 1 – they were to heal the sick, raise the dead, preach the gospel or, as verse 1 and 2 reads

Luke 9:1 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.
2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

Matthews account has Jesus tell them at this point: (Matthew 10:5)

“Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Going all the way back to Ezekiel we read some really prophetic and poignant words from that prophet about the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel as he says in chapter 34:5-16

Ezekiel 34:5 And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.
6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.
7 Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;
8 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock;
9 Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.
11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.
15 I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.
16 I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.

Jeremiah adds in 50:6

“My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.”

So Jesus sends his chosen men out to reach those who have been lost due to the carelessness of Israel’s shepherds, who in this day and age appear to have cared more for feeding themselves and fleecing the flock.

Over the course of Jewish history God’s people had gotten lost, become malnourished, and were starving for a true shepherd to love and care for them.

Enter Jesus the Christ. And he sent his men out NOT to the Gentiles, NOT to the Ivory towers of intellectualism, but into the highways and hedges looking for the lost sheep – meaning the lost souls who were genuinely His.

Share the message, he told them, heal and bind and cast the demons out, my sheep know my voice – so go and find them, gather them up, and bring them into my fold.

Later, in Matthew 28 at the Great Commission, Jesus intimates that these men were to go into all the world with the message (which was a hint that the Gospel was to go to all people) but it was to first go to the Jews. As stated, in Matthews account, Jesus specifically tells them not to go into “any city of the Samaritans.”

The Samaritans occupied the country that formerly belonging to the tribe of Ephraim and the half-tribe of Manasseh, who were Joseph of Egypts offspring.

This area was situated between Jerusalem and Galilee; so that in passing from the one to the other a person would pass through it.

The capital of the country was Samaria, which was a large nice city and it was situated about fifteen miles to the north-west of the city of Shechem or Sychar and about forty miles to the north of Jerusalem.

This people was formerly composed of a few of the ten tribes, who settled there after they were released from captivity and a mixture of foreigners as well.

What happened was when the ten tribes were carried away into captivity to Babylon, the king of Assyria sent gentile people from Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim to inhabit their country, (this is according to 2nd Kings 17:24 and Ezra 4:2-11).

These people at first worshipped the idols of their own nations. But being troubled with lions, which had increased greatly while the country remained uninhabited, they supposed it was because they had chosen not honor the God of the country.

A Jewish priest was therefore sent to them from Babylon, to instruct them in the Jewish religion but they were instructed partially from the books of Moses only and still retained many of their old rites and idolatrous customs, which ultimately meant that they embraced a religion made up of Judaism and idolatry(2nd Kings 17:26-28).

So that is the background setting of the origin of the people. Then a few things occurred that brought greater enmity between the two groups.

The Jews, after their return from Babylon got going with their plan to rebuild their temple and the Samaritans offered to aid them.

The Jews, however, suspecting that this offer was not out of love but was an effort to take part in some favors granted their nation by one Cyrus, and so they rejected the offer and this created a long and bitter hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews.

Then when Nehemiah was working to re-build the walls of Jerusalem, the Samaritans used every chance to thwart him in his undertaking, (according to Nehemiah 6).

Animus grew into competition and the Samaritans were granted permission to build a temple for themselves on Mount Gerizim and once that was done they, of course began to maintain that THEIR temple and its location was the real temple mount (based on the claim that Moses chose that location where the Nation should worship).

And if you have a temple you’ve gotta have a priesthood to operate it, right, and so this dude named, Sanballat, made his son-in-law, Manasses, the high priest.

And this sealed the hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans. Well, where do you suppose all the outcasts and reprobates from Judea would go if alienated and ostracized from their own community?

Samaria, right? And so, in time Samaria also became a place where all the riff and the raff and the excommunicated settled from true Israel and the true temple mount.

In the end, the Samaritans rejected all the Jewish traditions, prophets and books other than the five books of Moses.

And by the time Jesus entered the scene, there was no reconciling the two forces with the Jews regarding the Samaritans as the worst form of scum on earth and therefore they had no dealings with them.

It makes sense, at the start of His ministry, that Jesus would tell his apostles not to go to the Samaritans.

But from John 4:6-26 we know that Jesus did in fact preach to them (and was readily received in so doing) and the apostles imitated his example (according to Acts 8:25).

Now, Matthews account has Jesus add

“And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Which is similar to what Luke says at verse 2 when he sends them form “to preach the Kingdom of God” because we would ask, “preach what about the Kingdom of God?” and the contextual answer would be what Matthew says:

“To preach that the Kingdom of God (heaven – it’s the same thing) is at hand.”

Which best mean that the reign of heaven was approaching, close or drawing near.”

These were the very same words that John the Baptist preached in Matthew 3:2 at the start of His ministry.

Why didn’t John and Jesus preach:

“The Kingdom of Heaven has fully arrived and is in operation,” but instead speak of it as close but not complete?

You all know the answer. The Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus said, is within you. The reign of the Kingdom of God over the hearts and lives of people would be possible and complete once everything from the former earthly kingdom on earth – the fleshly material kingdom was overcome and done away with.

John the Baptist – the last of the Law and the prophets came to prepare the way for the Messiah, who in and through His birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension and return, was going to finalize and put an end to the former Kingdom and complete all the ground work for the Kingdom of Heaven to once and for all be put in place.

To them then, the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, but it was not in place – yet. And sending these men out to others was the beginning of the gathering before the final harvest.

(verse 3)

3 And he said unto them (the apostles), Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.

Okay, at this point we get into some conflict on the details of what Jesus told them to take and not to take between the synoptics.

I’m not going to get into the minutia but just know the following:

The general thrust of Jesus advice to them was:

Do not embark on your journey taking superfluous redundancies upon yourself. No extra sandals, staves, or money.

Trust in God to provide.

The BIG conflict is that in Marks account Jesus permits a staff and Matthew and Luke he appears to reject them taking such.

The answer to this seems to be in the adding staves or a staff to themselves before going but if they were equipped with one prior to going, Mark speaks to that. I don’t know if this is true but this is the standard explanation for the apparent contradiction.

At this point in the instructions Matthew has Jesus give more instructions to them, including:

11 And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.
12 And when ye come into an house, salute it.

We will read in chapter 10 of Luke that Jesus instructs the send ones not to go house to house which appears to mean, don’t appear to be street wanderers or city preachers on the corner but actually go to the homes where people are seeking and salute them and stay with them.

Which is why Luke adds at verse 4

4 And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart.

I sense Jesus telling them though this that He wants them to reasonably and rationally locate those who are humble seekers of truth in these cities, to locate them by referral of others, and to abide with them, teach them, and then move on to others of a similar ilk.

Now, Jesus has them preach that the Kingdom of Heaven or God is at hand. In order for it to be put in place once and for all, there must come an end of all that once was.

He has sent his Apostles out to share the news of it approaching and he tells them how to approach going out, and now he adds:

5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.

Matthews account adds the following:

15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

The Jews taught uniformly that the “dust of the Gentiles” was impure, and was to be shaken off. To shake off the dust from the feet, therefore, was a significant act for a Jew to do and conveyed the idea that those associated with the dust collected were impure and unworthy.

To reject the very dust of them was to reject all further connection with them. We know from the book of Acts that the apostles did this (as they were instructed by Jesus to do) a couple of times (see Acts 13:51 and 18:6).

I Matthews account Jesus says (regarding those who reject the apostles and whom the apostles dust)

“Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.”

Now think about this. These apostles were told by Jesus that in the day of Judgment the city’s that have been dusted BY THEM THEN would receive a worse judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah did anciently.

These very words timestamp everything to that time and that day and age, right? Of course they do. And it would be illogical to even try and make these words applicable to us.

6 And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.

7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him: and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead;
8 And of some, that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again.
9 And Herod said, John have I beheaded: but who is this, of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him.

In Matthew 14:1-2, we read:

1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus,
2 And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.

This was a son of Herod the Great. As we know, Herod the Great died around the first year after the birth of Christ, and left his kingdom to his three sons, of whom this Herod (Antipas) was one.

He ruled over Galilee and Perea and the title, “tetrarch” just means “one who rules over a fourth part of any country.”

Well this Herod heard of the fame of Jesus as He had then been doing some real miracles for a while now in his area of reign.

And remember, he put John the Baptist to death against his own conscience, and it appears he bore both guilt, and subsequently fear, that this was going to come back and haunt him, which is why he superstitiously believed that Jesus was actually John the Baptist who had come back from the dead to wreak havoc on him.

Jesus had very little respect for this Herod who had so wrongly murdered John. In fact, we will read in chapter 14 of this Gospel how Jesus refers to him as a fox, the ONLY person in scripture who is described by Jesus with the name of something non-human – a fox.

Also interestingly, when Jesus was finally brought to Herod, as we will see later in this account, Herod will be delighted in the meeting, hoping to see a miracle, but Jesus refuses to play along – at all – and will not even speak to the man.

That’s some high drama folks.

Let’s work through another chunk before wrapping it up together, starting at verse 10 where we read:

10 And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done.
(We learn in other places that they were amazed at their ability to cast out devils and heal so readily in His name)
And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.

Matthews account has Jesus at this point go to the desert place by ship with the people following him on foot. What is about to happen – called the feeding of the five thousand – is covered in all four Gospel accounts (verse 11)

11 And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.

This was a tender scene of lost sheep following the Shepherd and Him tending them – with what Matthew calls “compassion.”

12 And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are here in a desert place.

The apostles sought as evening fell for Jesus to send the masses back into the cities and towns for lodging and food as they found themselves in a desert place and without any accommodation.

But the Good Shepherd had other plans.

13 But he (Jesus) said unto them (the apostles) Give ye them to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people.
14 For they were about five thousand men.

Now, Jesus had just sent them out two by two without purse or script and without gold or silver or extra pairs of sandals – and they came back amazed and without complaint on their care or abilities.

But here, the apostles stepped back on his recommendation that they feed the masses. That was a bit too much for them – and Jesus, apparently realizes this, and steps back in and takes charge.

But in Johns version John adds a conversation Jesus has with Philip which John added, “and Jesus did this to try His faith.” In any case, taking the burden of care back upon himself, Jesus says:

“Make them sit down by fifties in a company. (verse 15)

I think Jesus had them sit down to that the magnitude of the miracle that he was about to perform would be clearly observable to all, so that there would be no doubt that it happened to his apostles – and I think for this reason all four reported it in their accounts because it was so impressive.

16 Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude.

Of course we note that Jesus takes the time to bless and give thanks for the food they did have, and then He broke the loaves himself and gave what he had broken to the disciples to then give to the multitude.

Somewhere along the line – from the time Jesus broke the bread and blessed it, these limited numbers of bread and fish multiplied – so much so that they were able to feed five thousand men, PLUS their wives and women and their children.

That is a pastor feeding his sheep, is it not?

17 And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets.

Interestingly, this is one of the most radical miracles in all of the New Testament in the face of the total number of people involved.

See, it was a few loaves and fishes which not only fed 5000 MEN to the point that they were filled (that’s a LOT of food) but it also FILLED the women present and the children, neither of who are part of the consensus taken in terms of numbers.

And at the end of it all, there was twelve baskets left – the size of the baskets is unknown but it appears that they were probably the size individuals could bear about and therefore it is implied that each of the apostles were given enough to eat as well thereafter.

It must have been interesting for them to participate in this because first of all they knew that there was a shortage of food.

So if they were selfless and concerned for the thousands of others they would have refrained from eating while serving the fish and bread to the others.

They probably wondered how the food would last and probably assumed that they would or could run out and therefore they would not have eaten anything at the end of it all.

But if they acted in faith, and served the masses, refraining from serving themselves, they would have found themselves surprised in the end of having twelve baskets full, enough for each of them.

It is not only truly one of the most amazing miracles of Jesus but one of the most symbolic interactions between the Good Shepherd and His Sheep.

We will stop here.

God bless you all.