The Contours of Christ Ministry. Luke 8:1-3
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
We live in a day and age where “success” is often used as a synonym for “size.” The sort of recipe for success is
Size = Income = Success
For instance:
A business is only successful if it has large profit margins.
A person is only deemed to have been successful if you’ve risen to the top of whichever company you work for and have a large salary. Know one ever seeks to make a career out of mid-level management.
A Dr is only successful if he has a large practice and thereby has a large income.
Sadly, that sort of business world mentality has even crept into church life and ministry.
Those who pastor small churches often desire to pastor larger churches and are often viewed as insignificant by denominations, authors and conference planners. (You're even more insignificant if you minister bi-vocationally)
To those with this type of mindset, they would have viewed Jesus ministry “unsuccessful” because it had very narrow contours.
The so called “church consultants” of today would label Jesus methodology as too narrowly focused to bring the world to repentance and faith.
After all, he ministered in the tiny and oft conquered nation of Israel. More than that, the first thirty years of his life were spent in the tiny little wayside town of Nazareth that was located in what we might call “the sticks.” Galilee was what we might consider “the country” today. Yet, this is where Jesus spent the overwhelming majority of his ministry. Add to that he had no “formal religious training” and his closest associates were not ‘big name” preachers” but “no-name fisherman, tax collectors and societal outcasts. No wonder Jesus was rejected by the overwhelming majority of the people in his day and executed. He certainly didn't fit in.
Sure, he drew large crowds from time to time but, let’s be honest, there wasn't much to do at the end of a work day around Galilee. Many in those crowds were there to be entertained and satisfy their curiosity. Those who Jesus ministered to the most were not the large crowds but small groups and individuals. His ministry was not large but yet it was deeply effective.
Jesus had a ministry that was very narrowly focused. The passage we have just read lays that out for us. At first glance it seems transitional, and it is. It is meant to serve as a bridge between the events at Simon the Pharisees house at the end of ch.7 to the next section in Lukes Gospel focusing on the final phase of Jesus Galilean ministry. This is the fourth such summary bridge Luke had given us so far (4:14-15, 31-32, 40-41, 6:17-19) However, while seemingly insignificant, these three verses give the six contours of the ministry of Jesus.
We will see that Jesus ministry was:
Sovereignly scoped. (v.1a)
Geographically guarded. (v.1b)
Theologically tethered. (v.1c)
Humanly hedged. (v.1d)
Socially infiltrated. (v.2-3a)
Materially measured. (v.3b)
1.) Jesus ministry was sovereignly scoped. (v.1a)
1.) Jesus ministry was sovereignly scoped. (v.1a)
Luke 8:1 (NKJV)
Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through...
This tells us that immediately following the events in 7:36-50 Jesus got right back to doing what his Father had designed for him to do.
This is important because it also teaches us something about Jesus: He always did the will of his Father.
Remember what Jesus told Joseph and Mary when they found him in the temple when he was around 12 years of age?
And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
Jesus sought to do nothing but what the Father wanted him to do at the time He wanted him to do it.
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.
For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
Even when it came to his death for the sins of mankind on the cross, it was exactly at the time God the Father wanted it to occur.
Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.
What is it exactly, at this time that God wanted him to do? Preach the Gospel and He was faithful to the task.
Application: That is all that the Lord requires of his servants. Faithfulness. He doesn't care:
How many times you’ve read the Bible.
How big your small group is
How big your church is
How many people you’ve witnessed to this week. etc
All he cares about is have you been faithful to the task he has asked of you. When we are being faithful, We are being Christlike and evidencing the Spirit of God working in us. (Gal 5:2)
The test of the life of a saint is not success, but faithfulness in human life as it actually is.
Oswald Chambers
**Paul speaking of the Ministries of Apostles
This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.
2.) Jesus ministry was geographically guarded. (v.1b)
2.) Jesus ministry was geographically guarded. (v.1b)
Luke 8:1 (NKJV)
...every city and village,...
Jesus spent his ministry traveling from city to city and village to village around Galilee. This flies in the face of modern ministry advice today.
Every major christian denomination has its church planting focus on major cities. (Which isnt bad, its very pragmatic). But, with that mindset, Jesus should have spent the majority of his time in Jerusalem. It was, after all, the cultural and intellectual hub of Israeli life.
Galilee was a mostly rural area and its citizens “common folk” that would have been looked down upon by the sophisticated people in Jerusalem.
Northern VA and DC compared to Winchester
Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee?
Later in the same chapter when Nicodemus was defending Jesus from being arrested he was mocked.
John 7:52 (ESV)
They replied, “Are you from Galilee too?...”
Despite the limited geographic location of Jesus ministry, everywhere he went he was attracting massive crowds of people to see, hear and be touched by him.
Jesus influenced the entire world, from a small and insignificant region of Israel.
Application: Don’t think for one minute that God hasn't placed you exactly where he wants you to be. He has a task for you to do and he’s placed you where you are in order to accomplish that task. You never know who you may influence for Christ from Winchester, VA.
On January 6, 1850—15-year-old Charles Spurgeon was trudging up Hythe Hill in Colchester, England on his way to church. When the blizzard prevented him from going further, he turned the corner and made his way into a small Primitive Methodist Church on Artillery Street.
Listen to his words as he later recounted the event:
“I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair now, had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning, when I was going to a place of worship.
When I could go no further, I turned down a court and came to a little Primitive Methodist Chapel.
In that chapel there might be a dozen or fifteen people.
The minister did not come that morning: snowed up, I suppose.
A poor man, a shoemaker, a tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach.
He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had nothing else to say. The text was, ‘Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth’ [Isa 45:22].
He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter.
There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in the text.
He began thus:
‘My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, “Look.”
Now that does not take a deal of effort. It ain’t lifting your foot or your finger; it is just “look.” Well, a man need not go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man need not be worth a thousand a year to look. Anyone can look; a child can look. But this is what the text says.
Then it says, “Look unto Me.”
‘Ay,’ said he, in broad Essex, ‘many of ye are looking to yourselves. No use looking there. You’ll never find comfort in yourselves.’
Then the good man followed up his text in this way:
‘Look unto Me: I am sweating great drops of blood.
Look unto Me; I am hanging on the Cross.
Look: I am dead and buried.
Look unto Me; I rise again.
Look unto Me; I ascend; I am sitting at the Father’s right hand.
O, look to Me! Look to Me!’
When he had got about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes, he was at the length of his tether.
Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger.
He then said, ‘Young man, you look very miserable.’
Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made on my personal appearance from the pulpit before. However, it was a good blow struck.
He continued: ‘And you will always be miserable—miserable in life and miserable in death—if you do not obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.’
Then he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist can, ‘Young man, look to Jesus Christ.’
There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that moment and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the Precious Blood of Christ.”
That man was a nobody in a little place preaching inside a little church to just a handful of people. But, God used him to reach one of the greatest preachers the world has ever known. A man whose life and ministry are still impacting people today.
3.) Jesus ministry was theologically tethered. (v.1c)
3.) Jesus ministry was theologically tethered. (v.1c)
Luke 8:1 (NKJV)
...preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God...
When you study the messages that Jesus preached, lessons he taught and conversations he had you will find that he didn't cover the wide range of topics that are the subject matter of many sermons today.
He never addressed politics, social justice, philosophy, self help, prosperity etc. The sole focus of Christ ministry was preaching and evangelizing about the “kingdom of God.”
Preaching- A greek word that means to proclaim or publically and authoritatively herald and official message that must be listened to and obeyed.
Bringing the glad tidings- a greek word that means to announce good news. Our word “evangelize” comes from this root.
What was it he was proclaiming? The Kingdom of God (kingdom of heaven).
That sinners can be delivered from Satans kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God’s own son.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
That sinners respond to the message through repentance and faith in Christ in order to be saved.
and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
That those who have responded to the gospel in repentance and faith and become citizens of the Kingdom of God will then demonstrate through love for God and obedience to God.
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
That it! That was Jesus sole message.
Application: As well that is the sole message of the church today. There is nothing that ails the world in which we live that cannot be answered by the Gospel.
Give examples of the things we can bring the gospel to bear on.
4.) Jesus ministry was humanly hedged. (v.1d)
4.) Jesus ministry was humanly hedged. (v.1d)
Luke 8:1 (NKJV)
... And the twelve were with Him,
Jesus spent time preaching and ministering to huge crowds everywhere he went, but, he focused most of his time and attention on the 12 men (minus Judas) who would carry on Jesus ministry after his ascension.
There was nothing “great” about these men other than just how remarkably ordinary they were. They were just regular, everyday people and to make matters worse; they frequently brought disappointment to Jesus because they lacked faith. In Matt 8:26 and 14:31 he addresses them as “O you of little faith.”
Not only were they often faithless but they lacked spiritual insight. Over and over again you see Jesus explaining and reexplaining and reminding them of simple things they should have understood or that he already had explained to them.
Then, at the time Jesus needed them most, on the night of his betrayal
Matthew 26:56 (NKJV)
... all the disciples forsook Him and fled.
But, Jesus poured everything he had into these men, in order to turn them into the people that the book of Acts tells us “who turned the world upside down.”
Application: This is what we now call discipleship. The Apostle Paul even understood the importance of this as he poured into men like Timothy and Titus telling them to train others who would train others. Friend, if you want to be like Jesus find someone to invest your life in. To walk with and guide through the christian life.
5.) Jesus ministry was socially infiltrated. (v.2-3a)
5.) Jesus ministry was socially infiltrated. (v.2-3a)
Luke 8:2–3 (NKJV)
and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities—Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna,...
We often think that Jesus only traveled with the twelve but in actuality he had a small entourage of people who traveled with him. Including some women.
This was a bit scandalous in Jesus day. For a rabbi to travel with women was unprecedented. Jewish rabbis did not have a high view of women and even went as far as refusing to teach them. Most women in this day were not able to even read or write.
Jesus traveling with and teaching women would have been viewed as politically incorrect and socially unacceptable.
This teaches us that Jesus and christianity elevate women not push them down!
We don’t know how many or all of the women that traveled with Jesus or even how often they traveled with Jesus. But Luke names three here.
Mary called Magdalene- Named after her home town. She is prominent in the accounts of the Lord’s death, burial and resurrection. (Matt 27:56, Mark 15:47, John 20:1-8- she is among the women who went to anoint Jesus body and who ran back to tell the others of his resurrection). All of this tells us she was likely an integral part of Jesus ministry. She loved and followed Jesus because he had cast seven demons out of her.
Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herods steward- A steward was a high ranking official, it is possible that her husband was the manager of Herod Antipas estate). She is also mentioned in the resurrection of Christ (Luke 23:55, 24:10)
Susana- we don’t know anything about her beyond her mention here.
What do these three women tell us about the ministry of Jesus?
That it reached into all levels of society. From the poorest of the poor beggar to those who lived in Herods household.
Application: This is a glorious picture of what the church should be and historically has been. A place where people from all walks of life and social structure stand on even footing before God. Where we set prejudices aside and link hands and hearts in service of our Lord.
There is nothing which the church needs more than to learn how to yoke in common harness the diverse temperaments and qualities of different people. If we are failing it is our own fault, for, in Christ, it can be done—and has been done.
William Barclay, ed., The Gospel of Luke, The Daily Study Bible Series (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster John Knox Press, 1975), 97.
These women were background figures in the life of Christ but they were no less important than those who were in the foreground. These women were likely the glue that helped sustain the public ministry of Jesus.
Joke: Who do we think organized the crowds, help form the lines, cleaned up the mess etc.? A bunch of men?
6.) Jesus ministry was materially measured. (v.8:3b)
6.) Jesus ministry was materially measured. (v.8:3b)
Luke 8:3 (NKJV)
...and many others who provided for Him from their substance.
Along with these women who are named we now learn that “many others” help support the ministry of Jesus rom their private substance. I think this includes unnamed men and women who were a part of the crowd who followed Jesus.
Speak of Matthias in Acts 1 being chosen out. The 120 in the upper room.
Sadly ministry, even in Jesus day needs money to operate. Jesus depended on the contributions of other to sustain him and those contributions came from those whose lives he had changed.
Keep in mind, the disciples had left everything to follow Jesus, including their homes and jobs. Luke later will tell us that Jesus had “nowhere to lay his head” and when he died he had nothing but the clothes on his back.
So let’s not think for a minute Jesus was “fleecing the flock” because there are also numerous accounts of Jesus and the twelve contributing to the poor. Jesus lived a simple existence but he and his disciples still needed to provide for their well being.
Application: The ministry of Jesus illustrates for us a biblical principle later taught by Paul. That those who proclaim the gospel ought to be provided for from their ministry.
In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.
Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”
Understand, we don’t give back to the Lords work because we somehow need to repay him. That debt can never be repayed and we no longer owe it. Christ payed that debt in full.
But, when we have been saved by God’s grace from the penalty of our sin, we give back to his work out of our love and gratitude for all he has done. And, when we do so we are imitating the sacrificial loving grace of Christ toward us.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
The Lord Jesus had a ministry that was
Sovereignly scoped. (v.1a)
Geographically guarded. (v.1b)
Theologically tethered. (v.1c)
Humanly hedged. (v.1d)
Socially infiltrated. (v.2-3a)
Materially measured. (v.3b)
He is the perfect model for the church today. We don’t need a “church growth guru” we need to follow the model laid out for us by the Lord Jesus.
Give the gospel.