Luke 9:1-17


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Introduction:

Time in Maryland was good. Thanks for prayers. Got to meet with the Workmans on Tuesday.

Returning to Luke today.

Interestingly, a lot of what the text says today could apply to Following God in a Fallen World. I didn’t plan it that way, God has just worked it out that way.

Starting in Luke 9, Jesus begins to put responsibilities upon the key 12 disciples, telling them to go and proclaim the Gospel, cure diseases, and feed the people.

And we’ll learn from this several things important for us as we follow Jesus: 1) we need to trust God; 2) be faithful; 3) be content

Text: Luke 9:1-17

Theme: Obeying Jesus in Ministry

Verses 1-6

A subtle transition takes place in Jesus’ ministry in Luke 9. It’s easy to miss. Up to this point, all that we have read has dealt with the work of Jesus. We hear of Jesus teaching, Jesus healing, Jesus performing miracles, casting out demons. For at least all that is recorded in those chapters, the work is all done by Jesus. The disciples and the twelve followed him around and learned from him, but at least so far as what has been written down for us, they themselves were not doing the work.

But now, Jesus gives them a job to do and he sends them out. Jesus grants them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. And he sends them out to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God and to heal. Jesus is still the star of the show, as He will always be, but now He has appointed others to assist Him in the ministry of miracles and gospel declaration.

Why the shift in Jesus’ approach? Well, the Bible doesn’t say but it is easy enough to guess. Jesus is on a timed mission. He knows that in less than three years He will be crucified for the sins of the world, buried, resurrected, and then return to heaven – His mission being accomplished. The time will come, and much sooner than the disciples could have guessed, when Jesus will no longer be walking on the earth and the work of teaching and performing miracles will pass to His disciples.

So, like any good leader, Jesus trains up other leaders to join Him in ministry. Having more people join in on the ministry multiplies the amount of ministry that is done and ensures continuance when Jesus inevitably returns to be with His Father in heaven. Having more leaders helps to spread the gospel more and do more good in the world.

When I think of The Country Church I think of two things that I really like about it. Now, I like more than two things mind you! But two big things stick out in my mind. The first is how welcoming and friendly people are. People are easy to talk to and many of you will approach guests to make them feel at home.

The second thing is how many people are serving. As a church, we run many Sunday school classes, music ministries, outreach ministries, education ministries, administrative ministries, encouragement ministries. Really, a lot for a church our size. This is possible because a lot of people serve in a lot of ways. It would be impossible to do with just a few.

He gives some special instructions to His disciples. These instructions are not meant to be followed today legalistically, as in Christian leaders are not meant to literally go from town to town owning nothing, but there are principles here to learn from.

He wants the disciples to trust in God to provide for them. They are to go completely empty handed to places they probably haven’t been and aren’t known, without even any money to buy the things that they need. They are taking fewer things with them than even a homeless beggar would.

They are putting Jesus’ instruction “seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you” into practice very literally. And God did provide for them. God provides for His children. We must be focused upon His work and He will provide for us.

There is also a lesson here about faithfulness and contentment. They are instructed to stay in the house that they enter until it is time to depart. If someone comes along later and offers them a nicer place of lodging, they are not to take them up on that. If they decide they actually like so and so better, doesn’t matter. If their hosts keep burning the broccoli casserole, doesn’t matter. They are to stay where God has put them till it’s time to move. Faithfulness and contentment.

Trusting in God, faithfulness, and contentment are powerful Christian traits that will make your ministry more effective and your life more enjoyable and full. They also are good testimonies. Unbelievers will notice and think more seriously about Christianity, if they observe you trusting in God, being faithful, and being content. Somebody who doesn’t trust their God and isn’t content isn’t going to make a very persuasive witness.

And though these instructions aren’t meant to be followed legalistically, it is a pity that the principles are so often ignored today too.

Trusting in God, faithfulness, and contentment are often lacking. This is the “I want it all and I want it all right now generation.” Even many pastors look at Christianity as a job and are too quick to leave a place of ministry for something nicer, forgetting that the first Christian ministers got by with nothing at all.

*story about pastor who left the Nazarene church*

We have a lot of forces in our culture pushing us to not trust God, not be faithful, and not be content. Resist those forces and meditate on God’s truth. Your testimony and quality of life will be better because of it.

Verses 7-9

Well, in verses 7-9 we have a bit of an aside, I won’t say much about them. They mostly foreshadow events to come.

But I’ll say that Herod’s interest in Jesus was not a benevolent interest, it was a hostile one. Herod had John the Baptist beheaded. In Luke 13, coming later, some actually well intentioned Pharisees – not all Pharisees were bad people, by the way – some well-intentioned Pharisees tell Jesus to flee because Herod is trying to find Him to kill Him.

When Herod finally does meet Jesus at long last, He dresses Him up in nice clothing and has soldiers mock and torture Him and then sends Him back to Pilate to be crucified.

These verses remind us that Jesus had some enemies. This particular one had even killed the forerunner John the Baptist. And now this powerful murderer has heard that one even greater than John the Baptist has appeared, and he is trying to find Him.

Herod also asks the question “who is this about whom I hear such things?” That question will be answered in the sermon next week! So we’ll come back to that next week.

Verses 10-17

Here again Jesus is including the twelve more in His ministry. They tell Jesus to send the crowd away. Jesus tells them “You give them something to eat.” In Greek, “you” is emphasized. It is more like He is saying “You yourselves give them something to eat.”

Of course, they are surprised by this, not understanding that Jesus is about to perform a great miracle. They have only 5 loaves and two fish. It’s impossible to divide that into 5000 pieces, much less actually adequately feed 5000 people with.

Out of curiosity, I looked up the population of Bremen and it was 4,500 in 2010. So whatever it is today, it isn’t far from 5000. Try and feed Bremen with 5 loaves of bread and two fish, let me know how that works out for you.

In an attempt to understand it, they suggest that perhaps they are meant to go and buy food for all the people.

Jesus doesn’t explain. He just says “have them sit in groups of about 50 each.” To their credit, although they don’t understand, they do obey Jesus. They arrange the people in groups just like He instructs and pass the food out to them just like He instructs, without explanation for how this is all supposed to work.

Sometimes we also don’t have all the information that we would like to have. People, naturally, want to know the full details of any plan. They want to know just what they are facing and just how to do it. As humans, it isn’t usually our privilege to know all the details. We just have to trust God and obey. We are to obey Jesus regardless. Sometimes, like the disciples here, we will soon learn the reason Jesus asked us to do something. You can later look back and say “Oh, now I get it.”

Sometimes we won’t know, at least in this life.

Interestingly enough, no one knows the details of this miracle either. At least, no living person on earth today does. Did the bread and fish multiply indefinitely somehow? He blessed them and the five loaves became 5000 loaves and the 2 fish 2000 fish? It looks like some act of creation and multiplication has gone on here, because when they had finished feeding this huge crowd of people, they had more food than when they started with.

Some people who don’t believe in miracles have come up with all kinds of explanations. One I’ve heard before is that the disciples were secretly holding out on Jesus and really did have a ton of food somewhere. Jesus’ comments guilt tripped them into sharing all the food they had. Really, I’ve heard that! That’s harder to believe than the miracle. Like they were hiding mountains of fish in their trousers or something.

But how it actually did happen, we don’t know, because we aren’t told. Disciples weren’t told either. Who knows? Maybe they don’t even know how it happened!

And that’s OK. It’s enough to know that this was a fantastic miracle. Jesus knows what He is doing. Jesus is able to fix the problems. We aren’t always going to have all of the details, and honestly that is OK. Probably even for the best. You and I just need to trust Him and obey. It’ll all turn out OK.

Application: Trust God, Be Faithful, Be Content