Allen Jackson - Disciples With Authority and Power - Part 1
We're doing a study in the Gospel of Luke. I have encouraged you to consider accepting an additional reading assignment beyond your daily Bible reading. Although our daily Bible reading has been pretty much on point this week, I thought to get to read Esther on the October 7th anniversary was very good coordination by somebody not named Allen. But beyond that daily reading, I've been encouraging you to read the Gospel of Luke, it's only 24 chapters. Some of you have a schedule that will permit you to read it very frequently, almost daily. You can read the Gospel of Luke in less time than it takes to watch a ball game.
For some of you, perhaps you could read it once a week while we're walking through this. But in the repetitive reading, it changes the way you interact with the text. It begins to become more familiar to you. It's not as surprising as it is when you read it maybe once a year, or just intermittently, or even if you just read a couple of pages at a time. You know, I was talking to my dad the other day, and I said if I had read my organic chemistry book the way I read the Bible, it would not have gone well with me.
I read about, you know, you read about two pages at a time, you never reread them, you move on to the next two pages, and you may miss three or four days, and then you gotta catch up, so you read six pages; you'd wonder why you didn't understand organic chemistry. And we wonder why we don't understand our Bible. So, what I'm really inviting you to do is a little different way to engage with your Bible. And if your schedule permits, join us in that. And then my goal in our time together is to invite you to imagine that it can impact your life and your behavior. I'm really not interested in theoretical Bible studies. If I wanted to do that, I would have stayed at the university.
The point of reading our Bibles and studying our Bible, the point of gathering with the people of God, is to invite the presence of God into our midst. And so, that's where we're gonna start. The goal tonight is Luke chapter 9. I say "goal" because I haven't done really well, but we need to pick up a little speed, so buckle up. It's a Wednesday night, most of you are familiar with your Bibles, and we will see, with the Lord's help. There's a tone change in Luke chapter 9. In verse 1, it says, "When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, And he sent them out to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick".
And he gave them some instructions: "'Take nothing for the journey, no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. And if people don't welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.' So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere". This is consistent with the narrative we have up to this point with one significant deviation. Jesus tells the disciples rather candidly, "You're going to be treated as I've been treated. Some villages will be accepting, and some villages will not".
I don't believe we should expect anything different. When we share the good news of the Kingdom of God, there'll be people who are very receptive, and there'll be people who are very much not. It hasn't changed. Please don't get your feelings hurt. Don't withdraw from the arena. Don't say, "Well, I tried that and everybody didn't applaud". You know, we live in a culture where we're told that your faith should be private. They tell us that, but they don't keep their worldview private. I don't know when the church is going to awaken to the reality that there's a spiritual conflict in the earth, and we've been sitting on the bench because our adversaries told us they didn't want to hear us.
We should be embarrassed. We've been given something, Jesus gave us something. Did you hear it? He called the Twelve together, and he gave them power and authority to drive out demons and to cure diseases. And then he sent them out with a message, and to heal the sick. He's given all of us some very similar assignments. We'll see those before we're done with the Gospel, and to the best of my knowledge, he's never amended nor rescinded the assignment. He didn't send us out to have Bible studies. He didn't send us out to be polite. He didn't send us out to be tame, or kind, or passive. He sent us out with a demonstration.
Now, the change in Luke's narrative is up to this point, God's been working in the lives of individuals. We met Zechariah, and then Elizabeth, and Mary, and Joseph. We saw John the Baptist's ministry, and we saw Jesus's ministry, and he began to recruit disciples. But they've been watching him do ministry. In Luke chapter 9, there's a very significant tone change. Now, Jesus says, "I'm gonna send you out". And this becomes the theme for the remainder of Luke's Gospel and the Book of Acts, which Luke also authored. It's about what Jesus will do through the lives of those who believed in him. So he gathers the Twelve together and he gives them power and authority. It's a very dramatic shift in this unfolding drama that we call Luke.
Now, the disciples are being tasked to do what they have witnessed Jesus doing. So here's my question to you: When will we accept the assignment to do what we see Jesus doing? I know it gets personal. And are we willing to receive what Jesus gave to his disciples? He gave them power and authority. Power is the ability to accomplish something; authority is a grant of permission to utilize the power that's available. And Jesus gave both to the disciples. And I think it's worth noting that the assignment is centered in advancing the Kingdom of God. And, if you'll allow me, it still is. The gospel is of a kingdom; it's not principally a gospel of salvation. It's a subtle perversion of the Scripture.
I believe in salvation, the new birth conversion, whatever label you prefer. But the message we have isn't "get saved," the message we have is there's a kingdom beyond the kingdoms of this earth, and you could participate if you choose. But the door is an individual by the name of Jesus of Nazareth. It's an eternal kingdom. It's not a kingdom of this world. It's in a kingdom with a power and authority that transcends anything we have access to in this world. And we desperately need a church, men and women who are believers in Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ-Messiah, that will take the message of that kingdom and its power and authority into our world.
In fact, look at the very end of your notes, spoiler alert, the very next chapter, chapter 10, it's the last passage you have. In verse 1, it says, "After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and he sent them out two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go". He said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few". Hasn't changed a great deal in two millennia. So what we're gonna process now in chapter 9 is going to be multiplied exponentially in chapter 10. There's a pattern emerging. This is no longer "watch Jesus do ministry". This is Jesus's recruited followers. He's been training disciples; it's a theme of Luke, and now he's empowering them to do the things that they've seen him do.
And we get to chapter 10, he's really gonna take the lid off. But we've gotta watch what happens now in chapter 9 because Luke is telling us some things. Verse 7: "Now Herod the tetrarch," fancy word for governor, when Herod the Great, Herod the Tetrarch's father was Herod the Great, the Herod the Great that killed the babies in Bethlehem. On his death, his kingdom was divided into four. So one of his sons, 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, and others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. But Herod said, "I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about"?
And he tried to see Jesus. It's a very brazen passage. Herod that's mentioned here, is the son of the Herod the Great that we meet earlier in the Gospels. Herod the Great is the one who killed the babies in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus's birth because of the message of the Wise Men: "We've traveled a long way to worship the king of the Jews". And he was not about to tolerate any pretenders to his power. And absent knowing who the baby was, he simply killed all the children that fit within the time window the Wise Men told him about, all the male children two and under.
Now, this is Herod the Great, the Tetrarch, in verse 7, his son, who has beheaded John the Baptist because of his message. He arrested him because of his message. His wife was wicked and asked for John the Baptist's head, but Heron was compliant, he had him beheaded. Now, Herod wants to see Jesus. What is very clear is he has no fear of God, none whatsoever. That's not a 21st-century thing; that's been taking place for as long as men and women have had authority. In fact, I think Luke is pointing us to something a consistent opposition to the purposes of God.
See, it's more than having a bad governor or an antagonistic leader. This resistance, this hatred for the purposes of God and the plans of God, by this point in the story that Luke is telling, has crossed decades and multiple persons and multiple administrations. I believe the best analysis is it's a spirit at work. I tell you that because we need to be more awake, more alert, more engaged, more conscious that the spirit of Antichrist is present in the earth to oppose the purposes of God. And if all we had was Luke's narrative, we could come to the conclusion that that spirit is murderous, treacherous, deceitful.
Herod the Great said to the Wise Men, "You go find the child and then come back and tell me where he is, so that I may worship him too". They had no intention of worshiping that child. Will you allow me to suggest we should be more aware and walk with greater prudence? Jesus is implementing a training program, and I don't think it's an accident that Luke includes, in this commissioning of the Twelve, the kind of adversity they face: a wicked, godless governor who didn't hesitate in the least to behead John the Baptist.
Same chapter, verse 12: "Late in the afternoon," Jesus is preaching to a large crowd of people, and he's preached through the morning into the afternoon... our services are way too short. Yeah, one "amen," and they all saw you. You'd better slip out now. "Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to Jesus and said, 'Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we're in a remote place here.'"
And Jesus replied, the disciples come to Jesus and say the crowd's really tired. Who do you think is really tired? The disciples? I think that's a reasonable conclusion. And Jesus said, "You give them something to eat". And they answered, "We only have five loaves of bread and two fish unless we go and buy food for this crowd". And Luke slips in there's 5,000 men there, so there's thousands of people, more than that. He said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about 50 each".
Now, what we're gonna, the balance of this chapter is a series of training exercises that Jesus has with the disciples, demonstrations of the authority and power that he gave them in verses 1 and 2. And if you listen to the language and you watch the words that Jesus uses, and the way that Luke is telling the story, because that's important. Remember, when Luke writes the Gospel, he hasn't just collected miracles and parables and kind of dumped him in a bucket and pulled them out and arranged them on a page. He's trying to take the reader on a journey to help you become a disciple.
So in chapter 9, Jesus gathers the disciples together and says, "I'm giving you power and authority to go do the kind of things you've seen me doing". And now Luke is going to give us a series of examples of training exercises with the disciples. And the first one he introduces us into, after he warns us of the kind of antagonism we should anticipate, at the highest levels of power and authority, he said there'll be opposition. And now Jesus has ministered to a large crowd of people, and the disciples are still watching. And the disciples come and say, "They're really tired and they're worn out, send them away. Chick-fil-A is closed, it's Sunday". And Jesus says, "You feed them".
I would submit to you that the feeding of the 5,000 is far less about the people that are there and far more about the disciples. Jesus simply blesses the food and breaks it, and says to the disciples, "Give it to the people". Somewhere along the way, the disciples realize there's a miracle taking place. Remember when Jesus took the disciples to a wedding, and they ran out of wine, and Mary tried the little intervention? And Jesus had him fill the water pots, and then he said to one of the servants, "Take some of that out of the pot and take it to the master of ceremonies".
The person that knew there was a miracle was the servants. The master of the ceremonies didn't know. They thought they'd found some better wine. The people that enjoyed it, they didn't know. And in this case, it's the disciples that are the one that are inside the narrative where the power of God is being demonstrated. They keep breaking off bread and fish, and they keep having more, like they're gonna pick up more basketfuls afterwards than they could have filled with what they started with. They're learning something new about Jesus, but it doesn't stop there.
Verse 18: "Once, when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, 'Who did the crowd say I am?'" Again, this is a a disciple-training "moment. Who did the crowd say I am? Tell me what you've heard". They replied, "Well, some say John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets come back to life". They don't tell him everything they've heard because others have said he's a drunkard and a glutton, right? We've read that. They're just giving the good reports. But Jesus turns it around and he says, "But what about you? Who do you say I am"? And Peter said, "You're the Messiah". Big step forward.
And remember this is all in this chapter that's a training paradigm. You don't have a message until you establish in your heart who Jesus is. It's not about joining a denomination, or finding a worship service you like, or a preacher that you enjoy, or the translation of the Bible that's easier for you to read. Our faith is founded on a conviction that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the anointed Son of God, the incarnate Son of God. Everything emerges from that. Nothing's too difficult for him. He can feed a multitude with a Happy Meal. He can speak to the wind and the waves. He can be the result of a virgin birth. He'll conquer death before we're done with the gospel.
That's my Lord and yours. That's the message we have for the world. There's a power and authority that transcends all the power and authority that's available to us. And there's a great deal of things available to us. There's economic power, and military power, and political power, and all sorts of... they're all real and legitimate. I'm not diminishing that. But there's a power that causes all of those things to pale in comparison. All of those things are linked to time. They will fade away, they will come to an end. There's a conclusion; this present age will be rolled up like a scroll, like a book that's closed. But the power of our Lord and King is eternal. That's our message for the world we're in.
Luke's not done. Chapter 9, verse 28: "After eight days," or about eight days, "after Jesus said this, he took Peter, and John, and James with him and he went up onto a mountain to pray". He didn't treat all the disciples the same, no equity with the disciples. I know it's fashionable in some circles to say equity is a biblical proposition. It is not. I could give you many examples. When Jesus gave out talents to the servants, they didn't all get the same thing. He took Peter, James, and John, and Bartholomew and Andrew complained. And he went up on a high mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. This is a fascinating event to me. We don't know exactly where it took place. If you visit Israel, there's two or three places, and at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. But they made it into the narrative. Jesus goes up on a high mountain and while he's praying Moses and Elijah appeared... I've always wondered how they knew it was Moses and Elijah. Facebook was just new. Do you think they had laminated lanyards with name tags? Because the disciples, Peter, John, and James, seem to understand who it is.
I've always been intrigued that Moses and Elijah had something with which they wanted to speak to Jesus. See, when you're done with time you're not done. We don't have a full presentation of that; we're limited in the insight we have and the understanding. But I can give you multiple examples: when you step out, when your earth suit stops, folks, you're not done. You are working for something so much more enduring, so much more valuable, so much more significant. The great diminishment of your faith is to think that your faith is only about getting all you can, and canning what you get, and sitting on the can while you're here.
We are in preparation for something. Jesus came to this earth, but when you read his story, you don't imagine his goal was an applause line while he was here. It's very clear he was on an assignment for something far more significant, far greater, and so are we. I think it's worth noting, at least in passing, that Ahab and Jezebel didn't show up to talk to Jesus, Moses and Elijah. It's the last verse, I think that is perhaps most significant in this ninth chapter, though. It's gonna become a theme in this chapter. It's the introduction of something that is new to us.
It says Moses and Elijah spoke about his departure... well, if it stopped right there, we might think he was taking a trip, "About his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment in Jerusalem". Moses and Elijah are talking about his crucifixion, his burial, his resurrection. We're looking at the game plan again. Luke has introduced something new to the narrative, and Jesus took Peter, and John, and James with him. They're gonna be central figures when we get to the Book of Acts, Luke's explanation of how the church found its footing after Jesus's ascension. And Peter, and John, and James, will be right in the center of that narrative.
Same chapter, verse 37: "The next day". Next day from what? The next day after the transfiguration, "When they came down from the mountain". This is pretty intensive training. They've been feeding large crowds. They've been acknowledging in public that Jesus is the Christ. Up till this point, only the demons have been saying it. Now, they've seen the transfiguration. Now, they come down from the mountain, there's a large crowd that met them, "And a man in the crowd called out, 'Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, he's my only child, and a spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams, and it throws him into convulsion so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and it's destroying him. I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.'"
It's another learning moment for the disciples. Peter, James, and John weren't with the larger crowd; the others are still ministering. Remember, they've been commissioned in those first two verses. Jesus said to them... remember what he said? You've got it. He gave them power and authority to drive out demons and to cure diseases. Jesus expects them to be prepared to address demonic activity. He gave them the authority in verses 1 and 2. And here's a father saying, "Your disciples are useless". And I didn't put it in your notes because I don't have enough room. Do you remember what Jesus said to them? "What is wrong with your faith"?
And God is moving in our earth, he's moving in our nation, and I pray he's moving in your family. So often I feel like the apostle Paul when he said, "I only know. I don't know everything completely. I have a limited viewpoint, but I know that God is moving". I wanna pray for you that you'll complete the course that God has called you to. Oftentimes, we have an incomplete perspective, but the faithfulness of God gives us all we need to know.
Lord, I thank you for the honor of serving you in this most unique season. And I pray for those listening today, that they will have the courage and the boldness to say yes to you. May not one person turn back, or be turned aside, or be distracted, but may we complete our course in Jesus's name, Amen.