Luke 9:1 - 9:48

Gospel of Luke — Steve Gregg

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Luke 9:49 - 10:20

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Luke 9:1 - 9:48

Gospel of LukeSteve Gregg

In this talk, Steve Gregg delves into Luke 9:1-48 and draws comparisons to the parallel text in Matthew. He highlights the instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples regarding serving God and relying on His provision, as well as the lesson to not take worldly possessions on their missions. Gregg discusses the turning point in Jesus' ministry where he becomes increasingly opposed and the prediction of seeing the kingdom of God before tasting death. He concludes by teasing unique Lucan material to be covered in the next session.

Transcript

Alright, now we are turning to the 9th chapter of Luke. Most of what is in this 9th chapter is found in all three of the Synoptic Gospels. We've got the sending out of the twelve on a short-term mission.

We've got the reaction that Herod made to hearing the news about Jesus. The feeding of the five thousand which is not only paralleled in the other synoptics but also in John. All four Gospels have that story.

Jesus with his disciples at Caesarea Philippi and then the transfiguration and the sequel where Jesus comes down from the transfiguration and heals a demon-possessed boy whose father had brought him there. And then Jesus predicting his death and the disciples arguing among themselves about which of them is the greatest. Now all of these things that are occurring in verses 1-45 are found also in Mark and Matthew.

Interestingly, it's a large block of material that all the Gospels contain followed by a large block of material that none of the Gospels except Luke contain. Because starting at chapter 7 and verse 49 and going through chapter 9 through chapter 10 through chapter 11 and 12 and 13 and 14 and 15 and 16 and 17 into chapter 18. All of those chapters are unique to Luke with rare exceptions.

And by that I mean some of the material there is going to have something similar in Matthew usually which might be parallel or might be Jesus saying something similar on a different occasion. But in any case, it's a very unusual thing for Matthew even to have something similar to these sections after chapter 9 verse 49. And sometimes people call that Luke's travel narrative because Jesus in that place is traveling in Judea and Peraea and it's not so much as Galilean ministry anymore at that point.

But the first 48 verses are familiar stories from having studied Matthew and Mark also. It says, This particular story of the sending out of the 12 to these villages to preach the gospel and cure sicknesses with these kinds of instructions about what to take and not to take and so forth. This is found in Matthew chapter 10 and it is one of the inflated narratives of Jesus in Matthew.

There's five discourses in Matthew and this is actually the second one that Matthew has because Matthew includes a lot more information about the instructions Jesus gave to his disciples. Here we have relatively minimal instructions where Matthew chapter 10 contains extensive instructions. However, in reading Matthew 10 it becomes clear some of the instructions included there were not given on this occasion but on other occasions.

Some of them resemble things Jesus said when he sent out the 70 which Luke is going to tell us about in chapter 10 and only Luke tells about that. Some of them actually the instructions seem to come from the Olivet Discourse also. So Matthew seems to take things Jesus said on other occasions on similar subjects and brings them together into one sermon or instruction or discourse in Matthew 10.

Here Luke gives us very little but some of the information from Matthew 10 we will encounter a chapter later than this in Luke because Luke alone talks about the sending out of the 70 and there are instructions more extensive there. In any case, Jesus told his disciples not to carry much with them and they were not to take anything for the journey, not staves which would just be a walking stick, nor a bag which presumably means a money bag, don't take money with you, nor bread, nor money, and do not have two tunics. Actually the bag might mean more like a backpack since he mentions money separately.

Now these instructions that Jesus gave are not necessarily general instructions for all Christians at all times when they travel. In fact, they weren't even instructions that he wanted them to follow at a later time because in chapter 23 or 22, excuse me, Luke 22 verse 35, he said to his disciples, when I sent you without money bag, sack, and sandals, which is the time we're reading about, did you lack anything? And they said, no, nothing. Then he said to them, but now he who has a money bag, let him take it and likewise a sack.

And he goes on and talks about a sword which is something we'll have to discuss at the proper time. But here he says, I sent you out without these things before and lo and behold, you didn't lack anything, right? You would think you would. Traveling without money, without food, without a change of clothes, how are you going to get by very long without those things? Well, you're not.

You're going to need those things. But you're going to have to trust God to provide them. That's his point.

In Matthew chapter 10, when he's given the instructions and the sending out of the 12, he talks about how they're to think about money in their ministries. He said, and this is Matthew 10, 5, we read, these 12, Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying, do not go into the way of the Gentiles, do not enter a city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Heal the sick, cleanse lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you've received, freely give. Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs.

For a worker is worthy of his food. He's saying, you're working for God, and God knows what his laborers deserve, he'll take care. If you work for God, a laborer is worthy of his food, God will provide for you.

But notice, you're not working for man. You freely give. You don't get a salary from people.

You're not charging for what you do. You'd think that if a person leaves home on a mission, doesn't have money, doesn't have food, doesn't have change of clothes, that he at least would have the right to ask people to provide for him. Ask people to give him something.

But Jesus said, no, you give it freely. You go out without anything, and you don't ask for anything from people. You don't charge for what you do.

You freely have received it, you freely give. Well, how in the world are we supposed to live under those conditions? He said, you're a laborer, aren't you? A laborer is worthy of his hire. Your master knows what you need.

You're working for me. And you'll get what you need. Now, what's the difference between the laborer receiving wages for his hire from God, on the one hand, and giving freely on the other? Well, this is the lesson, obviously, Jesus wanted to teach them.

He's teaching them a lesson in faith and finances. Something they'll need to know. And once they learned it, they didn't have to go under these austere conditions anymore.

Later on, he said, no, you can take your bag now. Go ahead and take money if you want. You know, in chapter 22, when he's speaking later.

He says, remember when I sent you out without those things? Did you lack anything? No, we didn't lack anything. Okay, I think you should then know your lesson. Now we don't have to do that lesson anymore.

Now you can take stuff with you. The point here is, he wanted them to find out for themselves that God provides. They can trust God.

If they're serving God, he will pay for their wages. But they can't charge for it. You see, there's a huge difference, in my opinion, between supported ministry and salaried ministry.

Because salaried ministry means there's an agreed upon figure that somebody's going to pay the man to do his ministry. And since it's generally a paycheck, it usually is an organization. A church or someone like that who drafts the check.

He's salaried by an organization, and therefore he's a servant of that organization. The laborer is worthy of his hire from his employer. But if his employer is an organization, then he's going to be pretty much obliged to please the organization.

But if his employer is God, God will provide for him. He doesn't need to take anything from an organization. God can provide various ways.

He can cause manna to fall, and he can cause ravens to bring you food, like he did Elijah. He can actually put it on people's hearts to give, as the people who supported Jesus. The women who supported Jesus from their substance.

He didn't ask them for that. They weren't his board of directors drafting a paycheck every weekend. They were just generous people that God put on their heart to help them.

And he got whatever God wanted him to get. He's laboring for God. He gets the wages God wants him to have.

And that's how it is in the ministry. You can't charge for what you got free. Every spiritual thing we have is free from God.

It's a gift from God. And if we've received it freely, we have to give it freely. And that's what he's teaching them.

You don't have to worry about whether God will take care of you. You don't have to charge money to make sure you get enough. You don't have to take some with you to make sure you don't lack.

God's paying attention to that. He knows you have need of these things. This almost seems to be a matter of the integrity of ministry that Jesus is trying to build in.

They're going to be ministering. This sending out is a short-term outreach. Eventually, he'll send them out permanently.

When he's gone, they'll have to be sent to all the world and do similar stuff. Not necessarily under the same strictures. Not necessarily under the same restrictions of carrying things and so forth.

But certainly, they should never charge for what they got free. And they will find out on this outreach. This is a training mission for them as well as an expansion of the preaching of the gospel to Israel.

The disciples are going to learn something as well as preach something. And they're going to learn that they can live a different way. Trusting God.

That God is, in fact, real. And if he's your boss, he'll pay your bills if you're doing what he wants. And so, this is the lesson he's making them learn by not taking things with them.

And as Matthew tells us, not even allowing them to charge for their preaching or anything else they do, even for healings. I heard not long ago, and I was shocked about some ministry that, and I won't name them, but they have these rooms where they invite people who are sick to come and pray to be healed. And I heard they charge money for it.

In fact, I heard they charge a lot of money for it. For healing. We'll pray for your healing if you pay us this much money.

I think, wow. That's not the way Jesus did things. That's not the way the disciples did things.

They weren't even allowed to do that. They didn't pay for the ability to heal, so they can't charge for the healings. This is God's work.

You don't take money in your pocket for what God's doing. But this is the way some ministries operate. They do charge for spiritual things.

This is, to my mind, not only wrong, I think it's an abomination, frankly. But that's just me. And maybe Jesus.

We'll see. But you've received freely give. So they went out and went on this mission.

Now, while they were out on the mission, apparently their activities and their message brought more attention to Jesus, of course, because they were preaching him in all likelihood. And Herod heard about him. Apparently he hadn't heard of him before.

It says, Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was done by him, and he was perplexed because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again. These were some of the rumors going around about Jesus since his movement was going on. Now, John had died by this time.

Herod had killed him. And so, it could have been John come back as far as Herod knew. Of course, Herod couldn't have thought that if he knew that Jesus and John had been contemporary alive together and he had not heard of Jesus till this time, and it was already after John was dead, so he said, John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things? And he sought to see him.

In one of the Gospels actually says that Herod said, it certainly is John whom I beheaded. He's come back from the dead. So, it seems like Herod bought into that particular rumor among the options.

Now, that's strange that he would. I mean, if it was Elijah or one of the prophets, or alternative theories that were going around, you might explain the miracles. Elijah did miracles.

The prophets did miracles. John the Baptist didn't do any miracles. Why would Jesus' miracles give evidence that John had risen from the dead and was now doing miracles? John, as it is actually stated in the Gospel of John, John did no miracles.

Elijah did and the prophets did, and if there's options, maybe this is a prophet, maybe this is Elijah, maybe it's John. So, Herod thought, no, it's John. And you can tell that that's because Herod was not resting easy about having beheaded John.

It's clear he's paranoid. He thought, oh man, I'll never get rid of this guy. I killed him, but he's gone, but he's not gone.

He's back haunting me. I mean, it seems like for him to assume that it was John when other more reasonable assumptions could have been made and were being suggested indicates that he was living with some guilt about what he had done to John, so he assumed, I knew it. I knew he'd come back.

I knew I was never going to hear the end of this guy. And it says that Herod sought to see him. This is interesting because Luke alone tells us that in the trial of Jesus, Herod actually got a chance to meet Jesus, apparently for the first time, when Pilate sent him to Jesus, and it says Herod was glad to see him.

He'd been for a long time wanting to see Jesus. He actually had wanted to see a miracle from Jesus, but it did not accommodate him. But he had heard about these miracles and wanted to see some of them.

Here we first learn of Herod's interest in seeing them. We later see that Herod had a chance to request them of Jesus, but he didn't get to see one then. And the apostles, when they had returned, told him all that they had done, and he took them and went aside privately into a deserted place that belonged to the city of Bethsaida.

Now, I just want to say how this is referred to this geographically. It's a deserted place that belonged to Bethsaida. Remember the place where the demoniac was? It was in the country of the Gadarenes, or of the Gerazenes, meaning apparently the wilderness area surrounding or somewhere belonging to the jurisdiction of those cities.

So also there was a deserted place belonging to the jurisdiction of Bethsaida. He wasn't in the city. So a lot of the regions around cities apparently belonged to those cities.

And that would explain why the country of Gadara and the country of Gerasa could actually be the same country if there was a larger jurisdiction that took in both cities. That's just going back to explain something that we talked about before. Verse 11, But when the multitudes knew it, they followed him, and he received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God and healed those who in need of healing.

Now, Jesus actually tried to get away from people. When the disciples came back from probably a busy outreach, and how long it had lasted we don't know, but they came back probably both excited and exhausted, he said, let's take some R&R, let's just go off by ourselves and take some breather time and go to a deserted place. Deserted means no people.

But the multitudes found out where he went and they followed him. You might think he would have kept trying to dodge them, but when he saw them come, he received them. He wanted some privacy, and he wasn't getting any, but he still received the people and healed them and did the things that they had come for.

And he talked to them about the kingdom of God. Verse 12, And when the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to him, send the multitude away that they may go into the surrounding towns and country and lodge and get provisions for we're in a deserted place here. And he said to them, you give them something to eat.

And they said, we have no more than five loaves and two fish unless we go and buy food for all these people. This statement from them is compressed down from what we read in other gospels. They actually, Jesus said, what do you have? Find out, go check, what do you have? And someone came back and said, I think it was Andrew came back and said, there's a lad here who has five loaves and two fishes, but what are these with so many? And Philip, Jesus asked Philip, why don't we feed them here? And Philip said it would take 300 denarii to feed this crowd, which is a year's wages for an average person.

These things are passed over rather quickly here and it's compressed down to simply, or we have no more than five loaves unless we go buy food for everyone. For there were about 5,000 men. And he said to his disciples, make them sit down into groups of 50, more manageable for distributing food, also easier to know what the total number was.

I said, that's why we'd know they're about 5,000. They knew how many groups of 50 there were probably. And they did so and made them all sit down.

Then he took the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled and 12 baskets of leftover fragments were taken up by them. So Jesus provides the bread, but he gives it to the disciples to give to the world.

And this is of course how he meets the needs of the world today too. He's the source, but we're the conduits, we're the ones who are entrusted with the message of the gospel and with the, whatever the blessings are that God wants to give to humanity, he gives them to his disciples to be the agents of blessing and feeding the world, the multitudes. And it happened as he was alone praying that his disciples joined him and he said, who do the crowds say that I am? Now this almost makes it sound like it was right there after the feeding of the 5,000.

We know there were some things in between. For one thing, the other gospels tell us that this question he asked them, he asked at Caesarea Philippi. John's gospel tells us that after he fed the 5,000, he crossed the lake and they chased him over there and they wanted him to give them more food.

And he gave them a discourse His crowd, in fact, was thinned considerably, apparently only the twelve remained. And he said, will you twelve go away also? And Peter said, where shall we go? To whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life. And Jesus said, have I not chosen you twelve and yet one of you is a devil? Now after that, after the crowd had been dispersed, in fact had become disillusioned with him, and his movement had collapsed down to twelve disciples again.

And this is sometimes called a turning point in Jesus' ministry from the year of popularity to the year of obscurity or of opposition, excuse me, opposition. This was the collapse of the Galilean campaign, as some commentators refer to it. We don't read of that collapse here in Luke, but we read about it in John, and we read in the other Gospels that he took his twelve disciples away to Caesarea Philpi, apparently finally getting that privacy they were seeking earlier.

Now Caesarea Philpi is pretty much up at the pretty much outside the country. I guess it's in the country, but it's pretty much out in the outer limits of the north. It's actually the headwaters of the Jordan.

I've been there. It's really interesting to see the water come out of the ground from crevices in the rock. The water comes out and becomes the Jordan River.

Actually, the Jordan is fed by three such places. But Panaeus, as it's called today, and Caesarea Philpi, as it was called in those days, is one of the three places where the water actually comes out of the ground and mixes with three other similar places downstream, and it becomes the Jordan River, which is a mighty river. That's really kind of a cool thing to see.

A lot of teachers go into the background of this location. It had been a place where the god Pan had been worshipped by the Greeks. The Romans had worshipped Caesar there.

It was named after Caesar now. Herod the Great, I think it is, is the one who had named it after that. No, no, it was Philip.

Herod Philip named it after Caesar and himself. Philippi was from Philip and Caesarea from Philip. It was Caesarea Philippi.

But the point here is this place had a pagan background. There was a cave there where human sacrifices had once been offered, not by the Jews, but by pagans. And this is thought to be a significant backdrop for Jesus setting himself up as unique among the deities that had been worshipped in that place.

And who do you think I am? He's going to confirm his identity to his disciples here. Anyway, Luke doesn't tell us about the change of venue. He just says that Jesus was praying and his disciples joined him.

And he asked them, who do the crowds say that I am? And the answer they give is exactly like what we read in verses seven and eight, where we were told the rumors that went around by Jesus. They answered and said, John the Baptist. But some say Elijah and others say that one of the prophets, the old prophets has risen again.

That's the exact three choices that we read about in verses seven and eight. In Matthew, they also add Jeremiah, who no doubt is considered under the old prophets label here. But Jeremiah was also one of the theories of who he was.

Interesting, no one was saying the right answer. Strange too, because the Jews were really anticipating the Messiah at this time. Remember Simeon, the old man? It was well known that God had told him he'd see the Messiah before he died.

Certainly the people of Israel were in anticipation of the soon appearance of the Messiah. Even when John first appeared, the Pharisees said, are you the Messiah? He said, no. Are you Elijah? Because Elijah was supposed to come before the Messiah.

He said, no. But here comes the Messiah and no one has the theory that he's the Messiah. It's obvious that the crowd had become more or less disillusioned with Jesus.

No doubt many had thought he was the Messiah or could be, but they weren't even speculating about him being the Messiah. Now, he's a prophet, John the Baptist, Elijah. And Jesus said, but who do you say that I am? And Peter answered and said, you are the Christ of God.

Against this, a more compressed statement. He said, you are the Christ or the Messiah, the son of the living God. Now, Jesus made some statements that Matthew records to Peter on this occasion about him being the rock and upon this rock I'll build my church and so forth.

That happened on this occasion. Luke leaves that out. Matthew includes it in Matthew chapter 16.

And he strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one. That is to tell no one that he was the Messiah. It's interesting.

Now, of course, later they were told to tell the world that he was the Messiah. But at this point in time, he didn't want them letting people know that. If people thought he was a prophet, they thought he was Elijah.

Let them think what they want to think. Don't tell them I'm the Messiah. Why? Because he was entering into a time of severe persecution.

And to call yourself the Messiah was to invite instant reprisals from the Romans. There were many Jews claiming to be the Messiah and the Romans always cracked down on him. Many messiahs had come up and been crucified because messiahs were regarded to be.

Popular rebel rousers who stir up rebellions and revolts against Rome. That's what the messiah was expected to do. And that's what the fake messiahs always pretend to do.

They were here to raise the people to rise up against Rome. Well, Rome didn't, you know, they weren't amenable to that. So whenever there was a revolutionary claiming to be the Messiah trying to rally the Jews against Rome, the Romans would come in and force, capture him, crucify him, end his movement.

But another one would come up. Now, if the news started getting around that Jesus is the Messiah, you know, that could get, that could get the aggressive persecution against him from the Romans going. It's interesting that the Romans didn't persecute Jesus.

The Romans didn't fear him. Even when he was arrested and brought to the Romans, the Jews arrested him and they brought him to Pilate the Roman and accused him of saying he's the king of the Jews, that he's the Messiah. Pilate wasn't worried about it.

Pilate said, I don't see anything wrong with him. And it's interesting that other people who claim to be the Messiah, the Romans were really touchy about that. And really, they had a hair trigger for going after those guys.

But when Jesus is claimed to be the Messiah by his accusers, the Romans just couldn't care less. Pilate doesn't care. I don't see anything wrong with him.

Let him go. Now, why, why so? My guess is, and this is only a guess, but it's an educated one. I think Pilate, who was probably a competent administrator, could not have neglected to know that Jesus was out there teaching in the temple, stirring up crowds, healing the sick.

Everyone's raving about him at certain times. Certainly the Romans would have taken notice of him and probably had a file on him. But what they had investigated would have shown him he's not that type.

He's not the type who's going to stir up the crowds and cause rebellion. He's talking about turning the other cheek. He's saying if the Romans want you to go one mile, go two miles with them.

He seems to be just the opposite of the kind of Messiahs the others are. No threat to Rome. So when Jesus was brought before Pilate, I think Pilate probably had a file on him and had done his homework and thought, this is not a troublemaker.

This is not the kind of person we're worried about, even though the Jews, for some reason, want me to think he is. So Jesus didn't want to claim to be the Messiah, and truly Jesus never publicly said, I am the Messiah. He did tell the woman at the well that he was the Messiah, but that was a private interview.

He told the disciples here in Caesarea Philippi that he was the Messiah. That is, he agreed with Peter about when Peter said it, but he said don't tell people about that. Jesus actually never is found publicly proclaiming himself to be the Messiah.

In his entire ministry, though he privately did. So, verse 22, he said, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and raised the third day. This is the first time of three times that Jesus told his disciples this before his death, but it still caught him by surprise.

They thought he was speaking figuratively. They didn't know that he was speaking literally. And so when he said, I'm going to die, I'm going to be dead for three days, I'm going to rise again, they didn't know what he meant.

And so it went over their head. This is the first time he says it plainly to them. Then he said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it or save it. For what advantage is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses, I'm sorry, and is himself destroyed or lost? I'm tending to quote from Matthew instead of this passage. For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory and his father's and of the holy angels.

But I tell you truly that there are some standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. Now, this statement, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God is rather perplexing because all of them died. So whatever he's talking about must have happened before they died, must have happened within their lifetimes.

What does it mean, though, to see the kingdom of God? Or as Matthew's gospel puts it in Matthew 16, I think it's 28, he says, some of you standing here will not taste death before you see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. So something called the Son of Man coming in his kingdom or seeing the kingdom happened in the lifetime of those people. Now, there's more than one theory as to what it was he's referring to.

Some actually think he was talking about his second coming and he was just wrong. In fact, that's what Bertrand Russell thought, the atheist, and many people who don't know very much about the Bible and so forth think that. In fact, probably some liberal Christians think that too.

I don't hear from them that often, so I'm not sure. But there are even people who call themselves Christians who think Jesus could have made a mistake about that. And that he thought his second coming was going to be within that generation.

It wasn't. And he just made a mistake. Those of us who don't think Jesus is a false prophet and who think he did not mispredict things have to identify what it is he was referring to that would happen in that generation in that time.

Now, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this prediction. And all of them immediately tell the story of the transfiguration afterwards. And that's what we come to next here in Luke 9, the transfiguration.

There, of course, Jesus' glory was seen. Jesus was transfigured. They saw something of, some say, something of his kingdom manifested there.

Maybe. It doesn't say so in the story of the transfiguration, but I mean, some could argue that's the case. And they say this is the reference that he was talking about.

Because, after all, a whole week passed between this prediction and the transfiguration, but none of the Gospels record anything that happened that week, only immediately from the prediction to this story, which suggests to them that the writers of the Gospel are trying to connect this story with the prediction, as if it's the fulfillment. Very commonly taught among evangelicals that the statement of Jesus is predicting the transfiguration. That's one theory.

There are other possible theories. This particular one doesn't seem strong to me, despite the fact that, of course, all the Gospels do place the prediction and the story in close proximity. That doesn't prove the fulfillment identity with the story.

One thing is, he said, some of you here will not taste death before you see it. All of them live to see this. A week later.

It's a bit overdramatic. If he's talking about something that's six or seven days off, and he says, some of you aren't going to die before this happens. Well, in all likelihood, he could have as easily said, some of you won't change your shirt before you see that, or won't take a bath.

I'm sure none of them did take a bath before that. And so, you know, something not so far off. Some of you won't die.

Sounds like it's something a little more further out. Some of them will die, but some won't. There'll be a few survivors by this time, but the suggestion is strong that many of them would be dead by this time.

And that wasn't true a week later. Now, another reason I don't think it's that is because Jesus made a similar prediction after the Mount of Transfiguration. It seems to be the same prediction as near as I can tell.

Because in Luke 21 and verse 32, he said, Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away until all things are fulfilled. Now, this generation will not pass away is certainly the same information as saying some will not die. There'll be some survivors.

The generation will not be fully died out yet. Same time frame, as he mentioned earlier, and he's also talking about what? Well, look at verse 27, Luke 21, 27. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Now, that's what he said. This generation will not pass away before they see this. That's essentially the same prediction.

They, you know, some of you will not die before you see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Now, since Jesus predicted that in Luke 21, which is after the Transfiguration, he was not predicting the Transfiguration. And if he wasn't predicting it in Luke 21, he was probably not predicting it in Luke 9, which makes essentially the same prediction in slightly different words.

So, I think he's looking out beyond that. Now, some might say he's referring to the Day of Pentecost. Certainly, the kingdom of God came in power.

Mark's version actually has it that way. Some of you will not taste death until you see the kingdom of God come in power. Well, the power came through the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

And so, there is a possibility, since, you know, that is the case, that he's referring to Pentecost, the kingdom coming in power at that time. However, only one of them had died at that time, Judas. And he said, some of you will not have tasted death.

That makes it sound like maybe more than one would. In any case, we don't know. The statement is inexact, and he could be referring to Pentecost.

I myself think he's referring to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, which is spoken of as him coming in power and judgment and so forth. It's not his second coming, certainly, but it is a judgment coming. There are many judgment comings.

There's many times that God is said to come in judgment scripturally. And I believe that God came in judgment on Jerusalem in AD 70, and he came in judgment on Egypt and on Babylon and on Assyria and so forth in other times in the Old Testament. But this statement, some of you will not taste death before you see it, is nebulous.

And even evangelicals have multiple theories about it. And then, of course, some people think Jesus made a mistake. Since there are several theories that make him not making a mistake, there's no reason to jump to that conclusion.

Certainly, there are some realistic suggestions about what he's referring to. And like I said, one of the most common is he's talking about the transfiguration that we read about here in verses 28 through 36, where it says, and it came to pass about eight days after these sayings that he took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the appearance of his face was altered and his robe became white and glistening.

Then behold, two men talked with him who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his decease, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep. And when they were fully awake, they saw his glory.

And the two men who stood with him, and it happened as they were parting from him that Peter and Jesus, Peter, excuse me, said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah, not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came over and overshadowed them.

And they were fearful as they entered the cloud. Then a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son, hear him. And when the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone.

But they kept quiet and told no one of these things, excuse me, in those, no one in those days, any of these things that they had seen. Now, like I said, the synoptics all record this story. Interestingly, Matthew 17, 1 and Mark 9, 2 tell us that the time between the conversation at Caesarea Philippi and this event was after six days.

Both Matthew and Mark say after six days, he took these disciples up on the mountain. Now, Luke says about eight days after. And this is yet another case where some people think they find a contradiction, but it's actually the opposite of a contradiction.

It is entirely harmonious. And it also proves that these guys are not copying each other because they don't say the same information the same way. Certainly, if Luke was copying Matthew and Mark, he would have said after six days.

But he apparently had some other sources, too. Someone remembered it being about eight days. Well, it was.

If it was after six days, it'd be on the seventh day and that'd be about eight. He doesn't say it was eight days, but about eight, allowing some flex room there. You can't get closer to about eight days than seven or nine.

And the other gospels say after six days, that makes it seventh day. So there's perfectly a harmoniousness about this. And yet the total independence of Luke from the others in the telling of the story is interesting to note because you'd think he'd just say it the same way the other people did.

Well, probably some other people did say it this way, but we don't know who they were. But he didn't seem to get the information from Matthew and Mark. And he took the same three guys, Peter, James and John, up on the mountain with him, just like he'd done.

He took them into the room where he raised Jairus' daughter from the dead also. And they apparently fell asleep because they woke up. And when they were fully awake, they saw certain things.

Jesus, for one thing, had changed in his appearance. His face was shining like the sun. His clothing was glowing, glistening.

There were two men there, Moses and Elijah, talking to him and apparently somehow recognized by the disciples, maybe by revelation. But we don't have any of the conversation recorded except the conversation was about it says his decease, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. That is his death.

But in the Greek, in verse 31, the word decease actually is the word exodus. It says they were talking to him about the exodus he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. Now, we know Moses, who is one of these characters, had been involved in an exodus, the original exodus.

He led the children of Israel. He accomplished an exodus out of Egypt. Jesus, as Moses was here testifying, was going to accomplish a second exodus.

This exodus was going to be, of course, salvation. The exodus of the Old Testament is a type and a shadow of salvation. And the freedom from Egyptian bondage is a type and a shadow from our being saved from the bondage of sin and so forth.

Jesus, therefore, accomplished this at the cross in Jerusalem when he died there. And that's what Moses and Elijah were talking to him about. Now, Moses and Elijah represent the law and the prophets.

And to the Jews, Moses and the law are basically synonymous. And Elijah is the prince of the prophets, as far as the Jews are concerned. So we've got the chief human representatives of the law and the prophets.

They're here, as it were, giving their endorsement of Jesus, apparently. And when Peter gets fully awake, so he wasn't dreaming, it's when they were fully awake, they saw Jesus glowing like this and saw these guys. And it says, as they were departing from him, verse 33, that is, it was clear that Moses and Elijah were going away now.

They'd been having a conversation with Jesus. And now Peter could see they were leaving. He said, oh, no, no, don't go.

Let's prolong this. Let's build three tabernacles. We'll let Moses and Elijah and Jesus all stay in their own tent.

And we can prolong this. We can have you guys around for longer. Imagine if you were a Jew living in the first century and you're around Jesus and you, of all people, got to see living Moses and Elijah, who had been dead for centuries or gone for centuries.

What an incredible deal. They're like the ultimate celebrities. You know, it's like if you were invited to hang out with some very famous celebrities, Billy Graham or someone like that, and people on his level, somebody that you admire, somebody that everybody admires, actually.

And you got to hang with them. You know, that'd be really cool. But then if they were leaving, you'd say, oh, couldn't you stay longer? And so Peter didn't want to see Moses and Elijah go away.

How often are you going to see those guys? And so he said, let's build three tabernacles, keep them around. Now, this was it says he said this because he didn't know what he said. In Mark's version, it says he didn't know what to say.

So he said the wrong thing. And sometimes it's better not to speak, I suppose, if you don't know what to say, because you end up saying something that maybe you shouldn't have said. Peter's words were ill-informed because he didn't understand what was going on.

Moses and Elijah, as representatives of the law and the prophets, were there to pass the torch to Jesus to cause the exodus that Moses had participated in to fade into significance as the new exodus eclipsed Jesus was going to accomplish. They weren't there to stay. They were there to endorse and excuse themselves.

And so they did. Peter wanted them all to stay. And by the way, there's Christians who still want that.

They still want Moses and the prophets and Jesus all pretty much on the same level. They want to be Christians plus messianics. They want to keep the Mosaic laws and they want to they want to be keep all that old stuff.

That stuff was there to anticipate and endorse Jesus. It wasn't there to be there permanently. Moses and Elijah, they were passing.

They were leaving. They were departing. And Peter wanted to retain them.

Don't go. Let's keep you all here. Jesus, Moses and Elijah, we'd have the best of all worlds.

And a cloud came down. Moses and Elijah were gone. Jesus alone was left.

And a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son. Hear him. And this statement, hear him.

Would have been an emphatic rebuke to the idea that we need Moses and Elijah and him. Well, no, he'll do by himself. Just hear him.

He's my son. You've been hearing Moses and Elijah all your life, Peter. Now Jesus is replacing them.

Hear him now. Moses and Elijah, you don't need to hear anymore. The law is passed.

The prophets have been fulfilled. Now there's something new. My son is here.

It's time to listen to him and not to those old authorities that used to be God's spokespersons. Now he has a new spokesperson. My son, hear him.

And so they kept quiet and told no one in those days of anything that they saw. Matthew tells us in Matthew 16 that Jesus gave the instructions about that, not to tell anyone what they'd seen. Now verse 37.

Now it happened on the next day when they had come down from the mountain, that a great multitude met him. Suddenly a man from the multitude cried out saying, teacher, I implore you. Look on my son for he is my only child.

And behold, his spirit seizes him and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that the foams at the mouth and bruising him. It departs from him with great difficulty.

So I implored your disciples to cast it out, but they could not. And Jesus answered and said, oh, faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here. And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him.

Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child and gave him back to his father. So Jesus had no trouble casting this demon out. And he was a little disturbed that his disciples had been unable to do it.

And in Matthew's gospel, it says the disciples asked him later, why couldn't we cast it out? He said, because of your unbelief. Now, some manuscripts have him going on to say how we at this kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting. That would be in the textus receptus, but not in the Alexandrian text.

But all the texts agree that he said, because of your unbelief. Now he rebukes them for their unbelief. The fact that the disciples could not do it is because they didn't have faith.

Now, why didn't they have faith? They had previously been sent out on a mission where they did cast out demons. And he sent out the 12. He gave them that authority.

This case must have just intimidated them more. There must have been something more resistant about this demon than others. And they kind of evaporated their faith.

And they just kind of didn't have any confidence that this would work. So the demon didn't pay any attention to them. The demons apparently notice your faith just like God does and respond to it or not, depending on how great your faith is or little it is.

It takes faith to cast out demons. It takes faith to have prayers answered. It takes faith to be healed.

It takes faith to be saved. Faith is required in all cases. And if you're going to confront demons, you better have faith.

The disciples didn't. Jesus did. Now, his anger might not have been entirely at the disciples, because it actually says in Matthew that Jesus uttered this rebuke to the man or in the hearing of the man anyway.

We don't know exactly who of this generation he was targeting. Maybe everybody. The whole generation was a problem, including his disciples.

But the man in Matthew had said to Jesus, if you can do anything, help us. And Jesus said, if I can do anything, all things are possible to him who has faith. And so the man said, please help us.

And so Jesus cast the demon out. One of the gospels tells us that Jesus saw that a crowd was gathering. And so he quickly cast the demon out.

He was interviewing the father about the situation. One gospel says, how long has your child been this way? And the guy says, from childhood. And Jesus having this conversation, then Jesus sees the crowd is gathering.

And to avoid causing a scene, he just ends the conversation and cast the demon out before the crowd gets there. Jesus was not trying to make a spectacle of his ministry. And he was trying to keep this man and his son's privacy intact as much as possible.

But Jesus was disappointed that his disciples didn't have more faith and were not able to cast the demon out. They were all amazed at the majesty of God. But while everyone marveled at all the things which Jesus did, he said to his disciples, let these words sink down into your ears.

For the son of man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. But they did not understand this saying. And it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it.

And they were afraid to ask him about this saying. This is not the first time he said they were afraid to ask him about it since he said it before and they didn't understand it then. They're not getting it, but they're afraid to let him know that they don't get it.

But he knew. Verse 46. Then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be the greatest.

And Jesus perceiving their thought of their heart took a little child and set him by him and said to them, whoever receives this little child in my name receives me. And whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is the least among you will be the great one.

Okay, these things we just read are in the other two Gospels, two of the other two synoptics. And they're self-explanatory and where comments are needed, I've made those comments elsewhere. Unfortunately, our time is limited.

And I can't go into this in the detail I did when we were going through the other Gospels. And since they have been covered, I won't feel quite as obliged to. However, from this point on, we will need to give more consideration to detail because we haven't covered them in the other Gospels.

They're not there. From verse 49 on is the unique material in Luke for a long period of time here. And we're going to stop here because it's a natural stopping point, although it's not a chapter division.

So, at this point, we'll break off our comments and come back to this uniquely Lukan material in our next session.