Mission 66 (English podcast)
Luke 9 Who Is Jesus
But here, his power over time and eternity, and his position as the divine Savior of whom the Old Testament prophesied, is brilliantly revealed on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah, revealing his divine nature with the voice of God the Father himself breaking through the cloud, confirming who Jesus was. This is Mission 66, a daily dive into God's word. I'm Rob Dempsey. Today, we continue our focus on the Gospels. Mission 66 originates from the ministry of Bible teacher and pastor Dr. Luis Ciao and is produced and heard in multiple languages around the world in partnership with Transworld Radio. Let me remind you to download your free study guide of the Gospels. You'll be able to go deeper into God's word and follow along with each day's program. It's a great companion resource of the audio teaching of John Matthews and Esther Sussulu. To get your free study guide of the Gospels, visit Mission66.org. That's Mission66.org. John Matthews is our teacher. His co-host, Esther Sussulu, gets us started today. Our journey today will lead us through the Gospel of Luke chapter 9, where it shows Jesus in his various aspects of deity as well as humanity. Not everyone in the world pretty much has an opinion about Jesus, but when we read the pages of the Holy Scripture, the Bible, we will see him the way he really is. Well, my name is Esther and I invite you to come along and learn more about this one promised by God. As our teacher John Matthews presents us with the theme, who is Jesus? Esther, thank you and great to be with you as always and great to be with every one of you listening wherever you are today. A warm welcome to Mission66. Now Jesus Christ is probably one of the best no-names on this planet to this day, but at the same time, he's also one of the most misinterpreted and misunderstood people in history. So, Mission66 provides the chance to open the Bible, the book of life, and really get close to the real Jesus. And here we are at Luke chapter 9. It's a long chapter and it covers several different themes and we'll paraphrase some of it to try to hit the main points. But verse 1 through to 9 show Jesus empowering his disciples to go out into the highways and the byways to preach the gospel. And they were not to take anything with them, but trust that it would be provided along the way. And wherever they went, they had the power to heal diseases and cast out demons. And if a village rejected them, well they were to shake the dust from that village off their feet and move on to the next town. And it says that Herod the Tetrarch heard about this campaign of Jesus' followers and was totally perplexed thinking that Elijah or John the Baptist had come back from the dead. In the same way, the unbelieving world often has little idea, doesn't it, as to who Jesus really is? Or what his mission is in the world? Or what great love, forgiveness, and freedom he offers you listening to Mission 66 today? And we're going to see more here, starting in verse 10. Here we read once again the story of the first multiplication of the bread and the fish that's already been mentioned in Matthew and also actually in the gospel of Mark. What do we find here? Well, we find Jesus welcoming the crowd. And he spoke to them about the kingdom of God and he cured those who needed to be healed. And late in the afternoon, the 12 disciples came to him and they said, "Send the crowd away now to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and provisions because we are in a desolate place here." But Jesus said to them, "You give them something to eat." And they said, "Well, we have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we are to go and buy food for all these people, for there were about 5,000 men." And he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about 50 each?" And they did so and had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, Jesus looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all late and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up 12 baskets of broken pieces. This is simply incredible. Jesus reveals his power proving to all that he was divine. In verse 18, it says, "Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him and he asked them, 'Who do the crowds say that I am?' And they answered, 'John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others that one of the prophets of old has risen.' And then he said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' And Peter answered, 'The Christ of God.' Peter knew. Jesus is presented in the New Testament, not as a mere prophet from the past or as someone who is simply capable of performing great miracles, not as some sort of special leader of a community, but he is the Christ of God. This means that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one, the ancient of days prophesied of in the Old Testament who would bring forward the salvation that was promised by God through the many prophets of the past. But Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone, and we wonder why not. But he explained it this way to them by saying, 'The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.' My dear listeners, here we have the clearest indication of who Jesus really was and the purpose for which he came to earth. Three times in Luke, Jesus tells his disciples that he'd be killed and would then rise on the third day, and that this was necessary for mankind to be redeemed. But in most cases, his words fell on deaf ears because they simply didn't understand what he was saying. Yet Jesus' true identity is even more intensely described, as Luke recounts the same as was recorded in Matthew 17 and Mark 9, the Mount of Transfiguration. This is what it says in Luke. Now, about eight days after these sayings, he took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory, and the two men who stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good that we are here. Let's make three tents, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah, not knowing what he was saying." And as he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud, and a voice came out of the cloud saying, "This is my son, my chosen one, listened to him." And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone, and they kept silent, and they told no one in those days anything of what they had seen. This is an eyewitness account of Jesus being transformed into his heavenly appearance. His power over material things is displayed as he multiplies the bread and the fish. His power over the spiritual world is displayed as he casts out demons, but hear his power over time and eternity, and his position as the divine Savior of whom the Old Testament prophesied, is brilliantly revealed. On the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah revealing his divine nature, with the voice of God the Father himself breaking through the cloud, confirming who Jesus was and that we should listen to him. And Jesus is going to show us his power again from verse 37, which reads, "On the next day, when they'd come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him, and behold a man from the crowd cried out, 'Teacher, I beg you to look at my son for he's my only child, and behold a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth and it shatters him, and it will hardly leave him, and I beg your disciples to cast it out, but they could not." And Jesus answered, "O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you, and bear with you? Bring your son here." And while he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him, but Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father, and all were astonished at the majesty of God. You see, Jesus once again here proves that he is the one sent by God by revealing his power over evil spirits, his power over infirmities, and his power to do things that would not be possible if not through the power of God. You're listening to Mission 66 with our Bible teacher John Matthews, and we're focusing on Luke chapter 9 today. Now John, I'm so interested in the way that Jesus sent out these disciples into the towns and the villages, taking nothing with them, not even money. I mean, should we still adhere to this model today? Does it apply to us? Well, Esther, you know, I'd say this is a case where the methods may differ, but the message is the same, and Jesus' commission, given first to the twelve disciples, was unique, and it was to clearly show that the apostles were granted the same authority that Jesus had himself, so the power to heal the sick, to cast out demons. But it doesn't mean that if I don't have the power to heal people or that I don't, for example, cast out demons, that I'm not able to preach the gospel to anyone, and this initial sending out of the twelve disciples is not an absolute model to be used in every mission. Now, how can we say that? Because in another place do you have cases where Jesus sends out 70 disciples, and afterwards we see the early church and the apostle Paul himself going forward on a missionary journey, a missionary journeys with provisions and also working for a living along the way. And, you know, the Bible talks about different gifting given to different people. So God gives each of us unique gifts to carry his light in ways that relate to those gifts that he has given us, and his plans for our journey with him. And I wonder also if, you know, in sending the twelve off on this mission without provisions or baggage, it was to help them appear to be as neighbors reaching their neighbors in the same way that perhaps local rabbis or prophets would visit a house to house in a kindly way. You know, they would not appear to be strangers coming in as salespeople. It would be a warm, approachable, low-key invitation to hear and accept the gospel in a way that they would hopefully receive with goodwill. So this, of course, was not always the case. So if we're going out on some kind of missionary journey, we don't have to do it exactly like the original twelve, but the message is the same. The kingdom of God is near. Salvation has come. The good news of the gospel is that anyone who repents and calls on the name of Jesus will be forgiven, and no eternal life and blessings from God. And on we go here because Jesus then again foretells his death, and again they don't understand, and they have an argument about which of them is the greatest. And again, Jesus reminds them that if you aspire to be great in the kingdom, then you must be willing to be least of all, like a little child, humble and teachable. And then they run into an exorcist who's casting out demons in the name of Jesus and the disciple would actually oppose him because he was not one of them. And Jesus says, "Don't stop him." Because if someone is believing rightly about Jesus, we shouldn't oppose his ministry or her ministry, just because he doesn't belong to the group. And then in verse 51, it says, "When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem." And he sent messages ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them and they went on to another village. You know how quick sometimes we can be to call fire down on people who don't respond the way we want or to get indignant with them? Jesus wants us to concentrate on developing his character, a character that understood that people behave a certain way for a reason, often unseen and are often crying out for the kindness and compassion that he displays in perfection. And verse 57 says, "As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus said back, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." In other words, don't think this is going to be easy. To another he said, "Follow me." But the person responded, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead." But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. And another came to Jesus and said, "I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home." And Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." He was saying to make the kingdom of God the priority in your life. Don't look back upon the fun times and the pleasures that you enjoyed whilst you were in sin that seemed appealing at the time, but just made things worse ultimately, but instead press on with the work of God and no looking back. Remember Lot's wife in Genesis who looked back longingly as Sodom was destroyed and she was turned into a pillar of salt. John, do you think that the amount of transfiguration was a real mountain or was it some sort of special visionary thing? No, it was a real mountain, all right. But the question, I suppose, is where? And the historical tradition has it as Mount Table. And that's the generally accepted location. But according to the text, the disciples were close to Caesar rear at the time, which was located on Israel's Mediterranean coast about halfway between Tel Aviv and Haifa or Mount Table is about 15 kilometers southwest of the Sea of Galilee. So it doesn't seem to be the best possibility. It could also have been Mount Herman, which was closer to the location they found themselves in at the time. But Luke doesn't exactly say where it was, but it was a real mountain. All right. Well, I know that earlier on we discussed how Herod was confused. He thought Elijah and the prophets had risen from the dead. And here Elijah and Moses, they're appearing with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Well, could it be said that Jesus invoked the dead in this instance? No, it's not written that Jesus sent four Moses and Elijah and had them appear. The Bible says these two men appeared and began talking to Jesus. Moses representing the law and Elijah representing the prophets. The Transfiguration is a demonstration of the future glory that was to come. And if we look closely at the end of verse 27, Jesus says that some that were standing there would not taste death before seeing the kingdom of God. Well, right after this, we have the Transfiguration. So they would see a bit of this future glory. So it's not as we could say the dead that were being invoked, but it was the celestial dimension being revealed in this particular vision. And the disciples get a glimpse of the future eternal glory. Therefore they see Moses and Elijah who were already in eternal life. Wow, what a thought. Can you imagine? And we should never seek the dead or try to make contact with them because once God has decided to take somebody, then we cannot defy God and try to get that person back. And we know the Old Testament strictly and explicitly warns against that the dead are before God and we should leave them there until our day comes when we will cross to the other side. And that, of course, is something we need to be prepared for. Oh, yeah, absolutely. You know, something else that I think strikes our attention is how the supernatural is manifested and it seems that they were demons everywhere, even affecting the children. Yeah, you're right, Esther. There was a lot of demonic activity during Jesus' earthly ministry because the palace of darkness knew that something really big was coming and they didn't know quite what to make of it. You know, Jesus is manifesting the kingdom of God here on earth. And that means that God is going to reign and his power is manifest in Christ. And the evil spirits and the demons, well, they have no right to rule anything. And they're taking up space that is not ordained for them, space that they shouldn't be taking up. And they're beginning these demons to feel resentment and fear. And they're forced to bow. Isn't it brilliant to see them bow before the power of Jesus Christ? The demonic activity was also related to many occult customs that were practiced by the Jews and the Gentiles alike. And again, you know, we should sound that warning to stay away from the occult and hang on to Jesus who has power over darkness, who is victorious over darkness and who is the very essence of eternal life. Hey, man. All right. Well, I'd like for us to look at chapter nine real quick versus 51 because it talks about the Samaritan village rejecting Jesus. Now Luke doesn't really explain the reason behind this rejection by the Samaritans. But maybe you can provide some background that might be helpful for us. Yeah, well, the disciples were recalling an incident from the Old Testament when the prophet Elijah called down fire upon the soldiers of King Ahaziah. Now the Samaritans were a mixed race of people who descended from the northern kingdom Israel after it was invaded and conquered by the Assyrians back in 732 B.C. The Jews of Judah despised the Samaritans because they were considered an unclean race. And the Samaritans for their part hated the Jews because they hated the Samaritans. And so they had no dealings with each other. That is until the disciples show up to share the gospel and the disciples get the door slammed in their face and they take it as a personal insult. And perhaps they wanted to use some supernatural weaponry to take revenge. But you know, Jesus, his way, which was spirit led, was that the gospel was to be marked by acts of mercy, not fire from heaven. But above all, the disciples were ignorant of their own motivations, of their own hearts, which were centered still in pride and a desire for revenge, for vengeance rather than the fruit of the spirit, which would become actually increasingly apparent in their lives following Jesus' death and resurrection. And as we read the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, and more. Well, thank you for sharing that with us, John. It's important to keep that in mind. So how do we wrap up Luke, chapter 9? Yeah, let's do that. Our theme today was who is Jesus? We read about the revealing of his power, about the mission he conveyed to his disciples, the revealing of his glory during the transfiguration. You know, it must have been far from easy to be Jesus because as we can see, he was rejected by many over and over again. And my dear listeners, since we know that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of mankind, you know, too, that he wants you and I to be his disciples, and we should follow him. And Jesus is the only way to get to God. He is the one who brings a salvation and forgiveness of sins granting us eternal life. That's who he is. And he loves you and longs to know you right here and now. And it's on that truthful note that we conclude today's mission 66. We hope you enjoyed our study because there is still so much to come. Join us next time here on Mission 66 and from me, Esther, and our teacher, John. Goodbye, and God bless you. That wraps up today's episode of Mission 66 with John Matthews and Esther Susulu. Follow their daily teaching by downloading your free study guide of the Gospels at mission66.org. Go deeper into God's word and discover how each day's teaching can apply to your life. James chapter 1 verse 22 tells us to be doers of the word, not just hearers. Download your free study guide at mission66.org and have it for our next program. That's also where you can leave a comment or make a donation to continue Mission 66 here and around the world. That's mission66.org. Mission 66 is a Ministry of Transworld Radio in partnership with Dr. Luis Ciao. I'm Rob Dempsey. [Music]