Luke 9:28-32

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28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. ~ Luke 9:28-32

The Lord Jesus took Peter, John, and James up the mountain in elevation of 9,000 feet to pray. The mountain presented practical lessons which are designed to yield sanctification in the life of the disciple. At the bottom of the mountain it was sunny and predictable. At the top of the mountain it was snowy and most unpredictable. And, the Lord Jesus took these three disciples up the mountain in order to pull the curtain back allowing them to see the really real. Such is the nature of our faith, and, these three saw the kingdom. This was a step involved in the process of becoming more dependent disciples.

Despite the fact that we live in a multi-dimensional world, we still live in a world of time and space. To some degree we will always be limited in our vision and understanding. The Lord Jesus escorts three of His disciples into a realm that is not bound by the elements of time and space. The transfiguration of the Lord Jesus was God’s seal of approval upon Peter’s confession of faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. For the three disciples, this was about the furtherance of their understanding of God and His kingdom.

This was one of three times the Father spoke audibly for the Son to hear Him. He spoke at His baptism (Luke 3:22) and would speak again during His final week of His earthly ministry (John 12:23–28). From the cloud God spoke about His Son. The goal of God's utterances is that we will see the Lord Jesus, only.

According to v.29 we read, "As he was praying." A closer look reveals the Lord Jesus was the only one praying. According to v.32 the disciples were sleeping. Prayer is far more important than we know. Continual communion with God is a must for the disciple to be defined by the God of the Bible. Like the disciples, we get nonchalant with God and withprayer.

While He was praying, His appearance "changed."  Matthew adds, "He was transfigured." Matthew used the Greek word "metamorphosis," changed in appearance. Matthew writes, "His face shone like the sun." All of a sudden His face was as blazing as a noonday sun. 

According to v.29, "his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning." His clothing became dazzling and brilliant, like a flash of lightning. His appearance was not of this world, it was of the world to come, the world He was in before He came to this realm. What a scene!

This is like that which God described of Himself in the Old Testament. He manifested Himself in the Old Testament as light. Throughout the Scriptures, light is synonymous with eternal life. God manifested His Spirit life in light. 

The Lord Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," but His light had never been seen like this before. And, while on that mountain these three disciples were given an incredible glimpse of eternal life. This is what eternal life looks like when it is translated into light. And it permeated through His transfigured body so that literally He was ablaze like a flame with the sun at its peak.  

According to v.30-31, "30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem." Their conversation was about His fulfilling departure, it was about His cross. It is only through the cross of the Lord Jesus that we have a correct understanding of who we really are and why we are here and where we are going. In Him, we are more than conquerers. 

Moses represented the Law. Elijah represented the Prophets. These two show up to have a conversation with the Lord Jesus about His planned death. God had used Moses as His instrument to introduce the whole sacrificial system to Israel. And, Elijah delivered the message of the prophets that the Messiah would provide salvation through His death for sinners. The Lord Jesus was the fulfillment of both the law and the prophets.

Peter, John, and James, had accompanied the Lord Jesus when He raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Luke 8:51), and they would accompany Him when He prayed in the garden (Matthew 26:36–46). But during His transfiguration, according to v.32, the three disciples were asleep and were unaware of all that was going on. When they awakened they began to lean into the purpose for which they came, the glorification of the Son of God and the development of the disciples faith. 

But, there are no Master's degrees in faith. His glory came to them in glimpses. He reveals His glory in glimpses and not in details. And, we think the best revelation comes on the top of the mountain. No! No! No! The best revelation comes when we are in the valley. The faith of the mountain begins with the faith acquired in the valley.

The disciples did not belong in this context. The only way they were there was due to their relationship with the Lord Jesus. This is where faith in the Lord Jesus takes us. Faith in the Lord Jesus takes us to levels that we otherwise would not and do not belong. 

Finally, as we learn to trust the Lord with our souls which are made of our minds, wills and emotions, He will transform us from within. His goal in changing us is to save us from being conformed to the patterns of this world. As we behold Him in His Word, we are transformed by His Spirit. The theological name for this experience is sanctification, the process by which our minds, wills, and emotions are defined more and more by Him. 

Luke 9:26-27

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26 "Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God." ~ Luke 9:26-27

This is the first mention of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus in the gospel of Luke. In His first coming, His goal was to be the sacrifice of God that would procure God's forgiveness on behalf of all who would believe. But in today's text, the Lord Jesus is describing His Second Coming when His glory will be on display, not His humility as in His first coming. His Second Coming is not to be confused with the rapture of the Church which could happen any moment.

Peter had spoken earlier on behalf of all of the disciples that the Lord Jesus was "the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And the Lord Jesus told the twelve, after Peter’s statement, not to tell people of their accurate assessment of Him because He did not fit in with the populaces' preconception of the Messiah. They did not understand that He must die first. After He died on the cross the disciples were devastated and disoriented. They, clearly, did not expect His necessary death.

With that understanding fairly firmly placed in the minds of the disciples, the Lord Jesus gives a challenging statement in v.26. "Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."  

The context here describes when the Son of Man comes in His glory at His Second Coming. And, for those who have not received the free gift of forgiveness of sin, they will face the holy God with shame. To avoid their shame is to deal with the shame of their sin, now. Once we have owned our sinfulness, we have a choice to receive the free gift of forgiveness through the death of the Lord Jesus. And, those who are not ashamed of their sin, and have not received the forgiveness of God, the Lord Jesus will be ashamed of them at His coming.

There are people who refuse to be ashamed of their sinfulness, and so they are ashamed of the Lord Jesus and His message. They’re ashamed of the gospel. They are ashamed to be associated with the Lord Jesus. What offended these was that He called their religious activity hypocrisy. And He said, they were the poor, and the prisoners, and the blind, and the oppressed, that their true spiritual condition was one of absolute poverty, they were spiritually bankrupt. And, because they were blind to spiritual truth, they would not receive that message. 

This is why the apostle Paul said, “I will boast only in Christ Jesus, my Lord.” Christians are people who are not ashamed of Jesus Christ, but they are ashamed of themselves and they come to Him in shame to be forgiven. Should I be ashamed of the one who died on the cross to deliver me from sin? Should I be ashamed of the One who loved me with a perfect love from before the world began? 

The Lord Jesus was not to be their Messiah. They would not have this man to reign over them, they said. They were ashamed of Christ. Everything about the Lord Jesus was a stumbling block to them and an offense to them, not just the cross, everything else. They put Him on a cross because they were ashamed of the fact that He claimed to be their Messiah. It offended them that one so humble, one so meek would claim to be the Messiah.

In v.27 we read, "Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God." The Lord Jesus is referring to the fact that Peter, James and John will see His transfiguration which is recorded in Luke 9:28-36. These three will shortly be given a preview of the coming of the Son of Man in His kingdom power and glory. The Lord Jesus had just said there's going to be a Second Coming and so, He gives a preview to Peter, James, and John.

They had seen His power, but they hadn't seen the kingdom, they only saw the signs. They were about to be taken behind the scenes, and see the eternal kingdom and glory and the power that the Lord Jesus will display at His Second Coming.

In Luke's Gospel, the Lord Jesus is referred to as the "Son of Man" twenty-five times. The designation, "Son of Man," implies the humanity and deity of the Lord Jesus. This description is taken from the books of Ezekiel and Daniel where we discover that there was a twofold description of Him as the One who would step into the exalted role of redeemer. He was both man and God, and, in order to redeem man, He had to become a man. But, He could not be anyone's savior without being God.

The Lord Jesus referred to Himself most often as Son of Man because He came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. He was subtle. He made claims that were explicit in certain settings and implicit in others. And only when the time was right, when He was on trial for His life, and they said, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the living God?" did he say, "I am, and you will see the Son of Man coming with great power and glory." This will happen at His Second Coming, and we will be with Him forever.

Luke 9:24-25

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24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? ~ Luke 9:24-25

In today's text the Lord Jesus continues to teach the disciples about discipleship. He begins with, "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it." The Lord Jesus is not taking the typical approach to identity, He is talking about living the life He died to give us. He is not talking about us getting into heaven, but heaven getting into us.This is sanctification teaching.

But the Lord Jesus doesn’t stop at, “losing self.” He says, “Lose yourself to find yourself,” which means, “die to your old approach to living and identity.” In context, the Lord Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem, He is going there to become the savior of all who would be defined by His teachings. He is instructing us to lose sight of being defined by our flesh or our sinful desires rooted in selfishness and fear. He is teaching us to be defined by the One who created us, to live out of His schematic for us.

In v.25 a penetrating question is asked, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” Gaining things from this fallen world is the normal way we try to be defined. Instead of being defined by gaining things, the Lord Jesus suggests we build everything in our lives on Him. Once we begin to do this, we will discover the true self that God created us to be, people who are stable, secure and confident.  

Now, there are three steps to being a disciple. The first is we must decide to follow Him daily. The Lord Jesus says that "if anyone would come after me, he must follow me." The second is we must view discipleship as a journey with Him. To go on the journey means saying, “I take my hands off my life.” And, the third is this process will produce a gracious Christlikeness. You could say this step is the willingness to be defined by His grace.

Like the disciples, the serious Christian is bent on showing the Lord Jesus how intensely committed we were, but our ways and thoughts most often do not align with the Lord Jesus thoughts and ways. More often, we are committed to the cause, rather than being persistent in our pursuit of Him and being changed by the His grace.

Later in this chapter the disciples ask the Lord Jesus. “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” This question was created in response to the unbelieving response of the Samaritans. God's way is not the way of condemnation, it is the way of grace. In fact, the Lord Jesus rebuked the disciples on the heels of their question. The more we grow in personal relationship with the Lord, the more we will reflect His grace.

Grace is the greatest change agent in the history of the world. It is not until we taste of His grace that we go into the depths of intimacy with Him. This translates into a more gentle disciple, one who is navigated by God's grace. But we think the opposite. We think that staunched commitment to truth and justice is evidence of our intimacy with God, but it is not.

In order to be the disciple of the Lord, we must come to Him much like the woman in 2 Kings 4. His fullness is welcomed by those who know they are empty, and the degree to which we understand our emptiness is the degree to which we can be filled. 

This lady in 2 Kings 4 had lost everything. She lost everything but a small jar of olive oil and she was in danger of losing her two sons. Her husband had died and she was left penniless. Elisha told her to go to her neighbors and borrow their jars. She was in great debt. In a sense, Elisha is telling this woman that she is not empty enough. She had to humble herself before her neighbors and her emptiness would be exposed.

Out of her emptiness, out of her nothingness, she was filled full, and yet her little jar wasn’t empty.  She filled a second jar, a third, a fourth and many more. Finally, she said, hand me another, and her son said, that’s it, there’s no more emptiness!

The more we die to self and live to Him, the less empty we will be. We all come to those times when we are not “empty” enough!  We serve a Lord that specializes in filling emptiness!

 

In creation, the Lord Jesus flung the universe into an expanse of emptiness, He hung the stars upon nothing. He filled the water pots with the best of wine. He used five loaves and two fish to feed thousands. 

Discipleship is being defined by Him, and His grace leads the way. God does His best work in the lives of those who are desperate enough to take the risks. Radical discipleship only happens in the lives of those believers who are desperate enough to be dependent on Him.

Finally, the grace of God that brings us salvation is the motivation for following the Lord Jesus in discipleship. In His grace, God values the vessel whereas everybody else values the contents in the vessel. He told the lady to borrow "empty" vessels. They had to be empty to be eligible. To be the disciple, we must be empty of self. Granted, we will not be perfect at this. But, to be full of His grace, requires the disposition of savior-confidence rather than self-confidence.

 

Luke 9:23

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"Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." ~ Luke 9:23

The Lord Jesus is in the middle of teaching His disciples about discipleship, not sonship. We are not saved from our sins because we take up a cross and follow Jesus, but because we trust that the Lord Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. After we become children of God, then we become disciples. One is all about justification and the second is about sanctification.

Discipleship is a daily discipline: we learn to follow the Lord Jesus one a step at a time, and one a day at a time. Following the Lord Jesus requires self-denial, it is not about self-fulfillment. The idea that the Lord Jesus doesn't want us having any troubles or any problems, and our salvation is a guarantee of health, wealth, prosperity, and happiness, is just not consistent with His words. When our theology is God-centered and not man-centered, we will see this world as He does and we will fulfill our calling, transcendently, from the view of the heavenly realms. 

Death of self yields losing and winning. In God's economy, we live by dying. According to His way of thinking and living, we are the living dying. Living to Him and dying to self is the epicenter of discipleship. When we say yes to the leading of His indwelling Spirit and say no to our flesh (sinful desires, no matter how altruistic they may be), we experience His life. In Ephesians we are told that we have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing. As we transcend and gain the view of the Lord Jesus, we will see that He uses all things in our lives for our good, even the bad.

Following the Lord Jesus will ultimately cost us absolutely everything of this world, but who is living for this world? This has nothing to do with being made right with God, we can't earn God's favor. This has everything to do with accessing the life that the Lord Jesus died to give us now. And, His life is transcendent and full of wisdom.

The gospels were written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that believing we might have life in His name. We unlock the kingdom, His rule in our lives, with the gospel. If we want to follow Him, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. Oh, we can choose not to deny self, follow Him and take up our cross, but we will be miserable. That is if we are born again and in relationship with Him.

If, “The author of our salvation was made perfect through suffering,” so will we. When we experience His kingdom and His wisdom, we are dumb to turn away from Him. Again, we do not earn our salvation, but as we grow in His wisdom and our sanctification, we will see the stupidity of going in a way that is contrary to His.

In Matthew 7:13, the Lord Jesus said “Enter by the narrow gate.” The narrow gate is the Lord Jesus and it means salvation is constricted through Him. He is the only way to get into heaven. There is a wide gate, but it leads to destruction. That gate is the religious gate, and many go that way.

In Luke 9:23 we read, “Whoever wants to be my disciple.” It's not the one who says, "Lord, Lord." It's the one who has decided to follow Him and are being given the heart of the Father. This is the gospel. It's a gospel of His power, His love and His plan. He doesn't say, "You must deny things for yourself." That's not what He is saying. He is saying, "Don't make it about you. Don't live your life for you. Don't be selfish. Don't be self-centered. Deny yourself, deny you." It means, "Let me sit on the throne of your heart. Let me be your God." 

Then, in Luke 9:23 we read, "Take up your cross." Every Jew hearing these words knew exactly what the Lord Jesus was talking about. The cross was an implement of death. Crucifixion probably started first with the Persians (modern day Iran). Alexander the Great (a Greek) introduced the practice to Carthage, where it was picked up by the Romans. The Romans started using it around the time the Lord Jesus was born.

The Romans perfected crucifixion as a punishment designed to maximize pain and suffering. It wasn't about killing somebody, it was about killing them in a really horrible way. Someone who was crucified suffered the maximum amount of pain.

Crucifixion was also the most disgraceful form of execution. It was usually reserved for slaves, foreigners, revolutionaries, and vile criminals. The only time a Roman citizen was ever crucified was for desertion from the army.

Now, "death" implies a new life, but we can't have the new life and live in the graveyard. A disciple is not someone who simply sets a new priority, a disciple finds a new identity. The mark of a disciple is his ability to hear the Master’s voice!  The world screams at us, but the Lord Jesus whispers.  Few hear His voice. Fewer still open the door. We must never interpret our numbness as His absence. 

In v.24 the Lord Jesus uses the word "life." This is not the word for physical life. The Greek word for that is bios, from which we get our word biology. The Greek word that’s translated “life” here is psyche, meaning “self.” 

He’s referencing our psychological self which is a part of our souls. You know that we are trichotomous beings, we are made of body, soul, and spirit. Our sanctification takes place in our souls. And in order for us to process in our sanctification,  our old way of having an identity, of gaining a sense of self, has got to end. We have to die to it. It is then that the Lord Jesus can give us a whole new identity and view on life. This is a process the Bible calls sanctification.

Luke 9:18-22

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18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?" 19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.” 20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.” 21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” ~ Luke 9:18-22

The heart of today's text is in v.20, “Who do you say that I am?” This is the most critical question of all questions. Getting this question right is critical to our eternal destiny.  Heaven or hell is the result of our answer to this one question. 

It is really a very easy question to answer. It's only hard if we reject the Bible. So anybody who comes up with the wrong answer about who Jesus is has rejected the clear testimony of Scripture. 

God has provided in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, an unambiguous answer to this most important question. According to the Bible, Jesus is the Christ who died on the cross to bare the penalty for the sinfulness of mankind. If we believe in Him and receive His free gift of forgiveness of sin, we will have eternal life.

 

In Luke 9:18, the Lord Jesus asked the disciples, "Who do the crowds say I am?" In v.19 we read, "They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life." The crowds never questioned the miracles of the Lord Jesus. The healed people, the people who had been freed from demons were everywhere and their testimonies were available to anybody who asked any questions. But the crowds came up with conclusions that were short of reality. They understood He had to be a supernatural person, but they fell short of the right answer. 

Then in v.20, the Lord Jesus asked, "Who do you say I am?'" Peter, on behalf of all the disciples, answered, "God’s Messiah." 

To Peter's response, in v.21, "Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone." He is giving His disciples this warning because their answer could be dangerous. It could result in this crowd starting a revolt against Herod and the Romans. Also, the crowd had already tried to make him a king by force. And He will be the King one day, but this wasn't the time for Him to wear a crown, this was the time for Him to bear a cross. 

So, in v.22 we read, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." Here the Lord Jesus gives these guys who had left everything to follow Him, an announcement of His death. They did not sign up for this. They expected Him to rise to a throne and exert His power with them at His side. Yet, when He did rise from the dead, with surprising transparency, the Gospels reveal that initially the disciples themselves refused to believe the resurrection.

Evidently, the disciple were not aware of such passages as Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, that predicted His death on the cross.  They had just reached the pinnacle of their affirmation that He's the Messiah, and now He tells them to not tell anybody about it and He is going to be killed by the religious leaders. In Mark 10:45 we read, "The Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many." He came to bear in His own body the punishment for our sins on the cross.

But, after the Lord Jesus died on the cross, then, according to v.22, "on the third day be raised to life." He had to die to pay the penalty of that which separated us from God in the first place. But once He was buried, God raised Him from the dead, indicating He overcame sin and death for us. Not only are our sins cleared out, we now can have a personal relationship with God with whom we will spend eternity in heaven.

In Romans 10:9-10 we read, "If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved."

Our eternity hung on just three words, "He is risen!" If He has not risen, Christianity is found to be a sham. Yet, if He did, God has turned our story on a dime. He has risen! The bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus kicked death in the teeth and left it toothless. 

Luke 9:12-17

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12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.” 13 He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” 14 (About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ~ Luke 9:12-17

Today, we come to the heart of the feeding of the 5,000, one of two miracles recorded in all four gospels. This is one of those passages where the compassion and sympathy of the Lord Jesus is manifest on the biggest possible stage. In fact, this is, quantitatively, the biggest miracle Jesus performed.

The feeding of the 5,000 marks the highpoint of the Lord Jesus' Galilean ministry. This true story happened in April of the year. The Lord Jesus had been ministering in Galilee, but now, past the half-way point of His three-year ministry, He is about to leave the area. During all of this time He preached the gospel and performed miracles. His goal was to tell people of the wonderful good news of the forgiveness of sins and a personal relationship with God.

All of Galilee had listened to His messages but a small portion of Galilee believed. The feeding of the 5000 was His high point and the beginning of the end of His ministry in Galilee.

In Luke 9:12 we read, "Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here." 

Now, this is a miracle about feeding people. And it exhibits again this amazing concern of God for the simple things in our lives. Many of these people were locals. And, although this isn't a place where they could get food, the disciples reminded the Lord Jesus to get rid of the crowd, so that they could go get something to eat. Perhaps, the disciples were more motivated by their own hunger. They knew they weren't eating til this crowd left. They had no idea the Lord Jesus' biggest miracle was about to happen.

In v.13 the Lord tells them to "give them something to eat." They had just come back from their mission of casting out demons, raising the dead, healing the sick, and preaching the gospel. Through that trip the disciples had access to the power of God to do the miraculous. But, as illustrated here, the disciples had a horizontal view of reality. They looked around at the 5,000 men, women and children (adding up to some 15,000) and they looked at the five barley loaves and two fish, which they had taken from a young boy (John 6:9).

According to John 6, Philip checked the money bag, and they only had two hundred denarii, two hundred days’ wages, not enough to feed the crowd. The training of the disciples was continuing, they were still in the classroom of the Lord Jesus, and they didn't realize it. God speaks to us through the most unexpected every day and we miss it, just like these disciples.

By the way, it was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, who found the little boy with the fish. In John 6:8-9 we read, "Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said, 'There's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these among so many people?'" These “loaves” really were “biscuits.” And the fish were dried fish. With five biscuits and some dried fish, the Lord Jesus wowed them all. 

In v.14 we read, the Lord Jesus "said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each." Then in v.15, we read, "The disciples did so, and everyone sat down."

And then v.16, the miracle happens. "Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people." This is the One who made all things. At this moment He was making more from a little. Nobody questions this, and yet everybody there knew that there's no food except what He's creating and He's creating it so that it's distributed among the entire crowd. It's little wonder that they said in John 7, "This is the Christ. This is the Messiah."

According to v.17, "They all ate and were satisfied." There is the theme of John once again, "His fullness, man's emptiness." Except here, everybody is filled. The Greek word chortazō is used. It is also used in Revelation 19:21 which reads, "All the birds will be gorged with their flesh." The scavenger birds at Armageddon, the massacre at the end of the age, will gorge themselves on the flesh of the dead who were slaughtered by the returning Christ. They ate like they had never eaten before. These must have been the best fish and biscuits ever. They ate like they had never eaten before.  

At the end of v.17 we read, "and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over." Now, this miracle was done for benefit of the twelve disciples. When the disciples collected the leftovers, there were exactly twelve baskets full, one for each disciple. The Lord Jesus provided for the twelve what they needed. You will remember, in the previous section there was a twelve year old dying girl, and a woman who had had an issue of blood for twelve years. And here, each disciple, all twelve of them was given a close up reminder of the miraculous provision of God and how He is the fulfillment of all our desires.

Do you suppose the Lord Jesus was expecting one of the disciples to consider all the possibilities? The disciples thought, “we have five loaves, two fish, and … Jesus!” Standing next to the disciples was the solution to their problems but they stopped their counting and worried. What about you and me? Are we counting our problems or are we counting on the Lord Jesus?

Luke 9:10-11

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10 When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, 11 but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.  ~ Luke 9:10-11

Throughout the three years of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, there were many miracles. Most days He did miracles. And many days He did many miracles. And here in Luke 9:10-17 is His most massive miracle. This was the most visible miracle because He kept multiplying the five loaves and two fish and He handed it from hand to hand for all to see.

The hub of the Lord Jesus' ministry was Galilee which is a small region, fifty miles top to bottom, twenty-five miles side to side and in the middle is a lake that takes up a lot of the space and there's 204 villages crowded around that lake. It was during this time that the Lord Jesus popularity surged because of His miracles.

So, this was the Galileans last opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel message. After this, according to Matthew 15:21, the Lord Jesus went to Tyre and Sidon. Once He was finished ministering there, He came back across the north of Galilee and went east of the Sea of Galilee into another area outside Galilee, an area called Decapolis, a Gentile area. 

Having demonstrated His power over and over, day after day, the Lord Jesus is gradually leaving the region of Galilee. The people there were so deeply and profoundly steeped in their religion, that not long after this, about a year, they were demanding the death of the Lord Jesus.

Now, there are only two miracles recorded in all four gospels, the feeding of the 5000 and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. After this miracle, the feeding of the 5000, the Lord Jesus teaches the crowds occasionally but most of His focus is on teaching the twelve.

In v.10 we read, "When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida." 

The disciples had been out on a short-term mission trip preaching the good news. The Lord Jesus had given them the power to do miracles, cast out demons, heal, and raise the dead. After they had come back, they gave an account to Him of all they had done. Then they withdrew with Him to Bethsaida which was a fishing village on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. Peter, Andrew, Philip and Nathanael, according to John 1:43 were from Bethsaida. 

All of the miracles of the Lord Jesus were demonstrations of compassion on human suffering. They reveal the broken heart of God over the pain of mankind. God is compassionate. The reason He fed the 5,000, was due to the fact that they were hungry. One can't ever divorce the power of Christ from the compassion of Christ because the two are in partnership all the way through His ministry.  

Note v.11 which reads, "but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing."  In Matthew 14:14 we read, "And when He went ashore He saw a great multitude, He felt compassion for them and healed their sick." 

The Lord Jesus felt compassion because of their suffering so He healed them. The word ‘compassion’ comes from two words, "suffer" and "with." The verb used here "felt compassion" reveals the pain and hurt the Lord Jesus felt deeply in His bowels. God cares about man's suffering. Compassion and empathy are closely related. Empathy empowers compassion to act in practical ways to receive the problem.

Spurgeon tells us, "The original word used here to describe His compassion is not found in classic Greek. The fact is, it was a word coined by the apostles themselves. They did not find one in the whole Greek language that suited their purpose, and therefore they had to make one. It is expressive of the deepest emotion; a striving of the bowels-a yearning of the innermost nature with pity."

Compassion is something seldom experienced in this world filled with indifference and cruelty. Most people don’t seem to possess the level of selflessness compassion requires. Our society makes it clear that our acceptance has everything to do with our success and little to do with the grace and compassion. How we are loved and respected is based on our accomplishments and abilities rather than the love and compassion of those around us. But our God is not of this world. 

In a world founded on the notion of works and rewards, cause and effect, God wants to build your foundation on his unconditional compassion. God longs to establish your relationship on the building blocks of his love and grace. It was God’s compassion for us that drove him to send the Lord Jesus to His death. It was God’s compassion for us that led Him to search us out when sin had wedged a great chasm between us. And it’s God’s compassion that drives Him even now to pour out His unfathomable love and affection over us.

Finally, in His writings from prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”  It seems to me this is what God has done for us. Let's do it for others, today! This is compassion!

Luke 9:7-9

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7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, 8 others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. 9 But Herod said, “I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?” And he tried to see him. ~ Luke 9:7-9

Herod Antipas the tetrarch was the ruler of the northern region known as Galilee and Perea, which is on the eastern side of the Jordan. His headquarters was in Tiberias, the principal city around the Sea of Galilee. 

There is no record in all of the gospel record, that the Lord Jesus ever even set foot once in Tiberias. Herod's question in v.9 is the most important question ever asked or answered. There is no greater question than, "Who is Jesus Christ?" And there is no more important answer than the right answer to that question.

In Luke 5:34 the demons knew the identity of the Lord Jesus.  They confessed He was the Holy One of God, the Son of God.  The religious leaders were unwilling to entertain this most important question and draw the obvious conclusions. The Scribes and the Pharisees, in Luke 5:21, asked a dishonest question, "Who is this man who speaks blasphemies?"

In Luke 7:20, it was actually the disciples of John the Baptist who ask, "Are You the expected one, or do we look for someone else?" This is the compelling question in Luke's gospel: Who is this man?  It is not just the compelling question in Luke; it's also the compelling question in Matthew, Mark and John. 

If anyone wants to find the real Jesus, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. If we seek, we will find Him because John at the end of His gospel, which is the last of the four, sums up the purpose for all four gospels with these words, John 20:31, "But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the God, and that believing you may have life in His name."

Despite the fact the Lord Jesus didn't do miracles to impress people, the miracles were impressive. They were so impressive that Herod learned about them. His miracles made Herod curious and fascinated. Those with whom the Lord Jesus was compared were also impressive. However, the Lord  Jesus wasn't trying to be impressive; instead, He came to lay down His life to pay the penalty that separated man from God.  

Herod the tetrarch was wicked. He was an open sinner and the whole world knew it. So, John the Baptist confronted him and Herod imprisoned John and then beheaded him. This is the guy who asked this most important question.

Thomas answered that question, "My Lord and my God."  The centurion who was watching the Lord Jesus being crucified, said, "Truly this was the Son of God."

In v.7-8 we read, "Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, 8 others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life."  

Notice Herod didn't say, "What is His message?" And, he didn't ask about His miracles. Herod asked the right question, "who is this man?"

He is the One who defended the oppressed, fed the hungry, healed the sick, helped the weak, and gave hope to the hopeless. The world keeps time based on His birth because of his impact. He is the One who came to bring heaven to earth. He is the One who could have dug the Grand Canyon with His pinkie. This is the One who extends grace to those who behead His friend. 

Luke 9:3-6

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3 He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. 5 If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere. ~ Luke 9:3-6

In Luke 9 the Lord Jesus is for the first time sending His disciples out to do ministry. In order to be most effective, they had to do certain things. In v.1-6 we are given the profile of an effective witness. In our last blog we considered a couple of these marks: he shares the message of salvation, and he manifests compassion. The third is found in v.3: he trust the Lord to meet his needs.

In Matthew 10:8 we read, "Freely you have received, freely give." Freely, the disciples received all things from God and now He is challenging them to give it away to others freely. The witness is to never seek to be enriched from the suffering of others. Sick and suffering people will pay anything to someone they think can help them. We must never put a price on our ministry. 

In v.3 we read, "He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt." In Matthew 6 we read, "Take no thought for what you shall eat, or drink, or what you shall wear, you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else will be added to you.” 

God will always take care of His own. Dependence is a must for the disciple and is a marvelous thing to realize and learn because as we learn it, we get to know the Lord personally. And, the result is the profile of a witness is made known to, in, and through the disciple. It is then he proclaims salvation, he manifests compassion, and he maintains trust.  

The fourth characteristic of the disciple/witness is he is content. In v.4 we read, "Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town." In those days traveling teachers wanted to stay just long enough to get money out of a family and then go to the next place. They kept moving to the next house, collecting more money from everybody. The Lord Jesus is saying just go to one place, stay there the whole time. You start there and you leave from there. This is about looking to Him for our needs and being content. 

The fifth characteristic of the witness is discernment. In v.5 we read, " If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them."  When they reject us and our message, we are to "shake the dust off our feet as a testimony against them."  

Shaking off the dust from the feet was an old Jewish custom. Whenever a Jew traveled into Gentile areas, and they came back across the border into Israel, they would shake the dirt off all of their bodies as a symbol of judgment and disdain. The Jews weren’t to bring pagan dirt into the holy land. 

If we are to be effective witnesses, we must share the message of salvation, manifest compassion, maintain trust in God, demonstrate compassion, and exercise discernment.  

According to v.6 the twelve did exactly what the Lord told them to do. Departing immediately without packing anything, they began doing ministry among the villages proclaiming the gospel and healing everywhere. And, the Lord Jesus multiplied Himself twelve times.

The believer is called to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel, to show lost sinners compassion, and to live lives that are marked by trust in the Lord alone, so that no one could accuse us of doing ministry for ill-gotten gain. All the while growing in our God-given ability to discern the situations, people and needs.

Luke 9:1-2

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1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. ~ Luke 9:1-2

The Lord Jesus lived for thirty years in the city of Nazareth in virtual obscurity. He lived those thirty years living a perfectly sinless life in order that that life might be credited to the account of those who believe. He fulfilled all righteousness. At the age of thirty, His public ministry began. At that time, John the Baptist identified Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 

Luke 9 is half way through the three years. We're eighteen months into the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Only eighteen months or so are left until the cross. Up to this point the Lord Jesus did His ministry all by Himself. All the miracles were miracles He rendered. All the messages were messages He preached. 

In Luke 9, it was time to commission the twelve and send them out to preach the gospel in Galilee. They've had eighteen months of being discipled by the Lord Jesus. With this first mission, the learners are now preachers. This is their first real ministry opportunity. 

They went out two by two to preach the gospel, and to deliver miracles that attested to the validity of their message. They went out for a short period of time, then they came back, they gave a report, and the Lord Jesus used the experience to further instruct them. This is the model of Jesus' discipleship program.

The disciples were the most common of men, just like you and me. They were plain, ordinary people. And they are exactly the kind of people the Lord Jesus chooses to use. They were  already half way through His ministry before their formal training even begins. To this point in time they've just been listening and observing. They've been getting their theological and biblical training. They've been sorting out their theology, but now it's time for formal training to be sent out. And there's only eighteen months left before the Lord Jesus will be gone and they will be on their own.

During the first half of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, He ministered all by Himself. John the Baptist's ministry had faded, and he became a prisoner. The Lord Jesus, at that time, was by Himself in the ministry. It was critical, at that point, to multiply. This is one of the goals of discipleship.

So, these twelve with boring backgrounds, are used of the Lord to further His work in this world. These men worked with their hands, not their brains. They were blue collared, involved in earthly vocations. And, yet they're given the most important task in the history of the world. It is a given that God will always accomplish His will. He is the key to this whole operation, yet He uses twelve ordinary men with the most extraordinary responsibility.

These twelve, minus Judas Iscariot plus the Apostle Paul, were used of God to write the New Testament. When the church was born in Acts 2:42 they met together and they studied the apostles' doctrine. They were used by God to reveal the doctrine. God revealed sound doctrine through them and eventually that doctrine was written down. We now know it as the New Testament.

In Ephesians 2:20, we learn the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles, with the Lord Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. In Revelation 21:14 we learn the names of the Apostles are eternally emblazoned upon the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem, the capital of eternity. 

These messengers of Jesus Christ proclaimed salvation. In v.2 we read, "he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God." They preached the message that God has a kingdom and anyone who is willing to believe in that kingdom can be in it.  Even though we're sinners, if we cry out for God's mercy and forgiveness and if we acknowledge Jesus Christ as His Son and Savior, we are included in His kingdom. His kingdom includes salvation from the penalty, the power and eventually, the presence of sin. 

These men had listened for eighteen months, now they were ready to speak what they had heard. When they went out they preached about sin and repentance and grace and mercy from God, and the forgiveness of sin, that God gives to the broken-hearted. They preached the Lord Jesus was the promised Messiah.  And it wouldn't be long before He would give His life for their sins and He would therefore ratify the covenant that provides salvation.

The Lord Jesus couldn't send them out with the right message unless there was a way to attest to its validity because there wasn't a New Testament against which you could measure the preacher. Today, we do not need miracles to validate our message. We can tell whether the message is true or not by simply measuring it against the New Testament. In those days there wasn't any Scripture of the New Testament, a standard that people could go to against which to test a man. And so in order to provide validation beyond question, they were given this power.

The Lord Jesus gave the twelve power and authority over all the demons. They had dominance over the supernatural realm of spiritual beings. This is the very same power and authority that the Lord Jesus Himself possessed. In Matthew 10:8 we learn they also had the power to raise the dead. In 2 Corinthians 12:12 we read, "The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles." 

The jest of our text today is this: God demonstrated His compassion in the realm of people's sorrows, sufferings, anxieties, fears, and death. And, when He sent out His disciples, He sent them with two main weapons: the gospel and miracles which both demonstrated His compassion.

Finally, God’s word was never given to us to be a dead letter, it was given to transfer His heart to us. If this is not so, the word of God then becomes simply facts and information, stored memory disconnected from any life-giving power. At the end of it all is God's desire for us to be given His heart for others and we minister to them accordingly.