Jesus’ message was designed for religious outsiders. All throughout today’s message, I’m going to be talking about the gospel. The gospel is Jesus. The gospel is the message of Jesus.
If you’re regularly a part of our church family, I’ve moved from the end of Luke 5, last week, to Luke 8, this week. I’ll leave the center of Luke 8 for next week and come back for Luke 6 and for Luke 7 later in the year. I’ve done this to stay with our theme: Jesus Loves Sinners.
We are probably between year one and year two in Jesus’ public ministry that lasted three years. Jesus essentially tells His followers: Follow Me Carefully.
Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.” (Luke 8:1-3)
“No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away. Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:16-21)
1. The Gospel Climbs
Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.” (Luke 8:1-3)
Jesus went on preaching tours through villages and towns up and down the country. As Jesus went preaching through these towns, the Twelve followed him. Yet, Jesus had other disciples other than the Twelve. Not only did the Twelve follow Jesus, but a second group followed Him - several women.
When I say, The Gospel Climbs, I am pointing to the fact that the gospel doesn’t stay in one stratum. The gospel isn’t just middle class or appealing to men. Instead, the gospel has a wide appeal. We saw this truth as we began this series – when Jesus dared to eat with sinners, religious outsiders (Luke 5:27-32). And here is a stratum of society before us that responds to the Gospel – women. Women play an impressive role in Luke’s narrative. Women are disciples of Jesus as well. This is unheard of in the first century. Women were held often in low-esteem in Jesus’ day. One example is that rabbis would not allow women to be disciples.
What’s it mean to be a woman? Christina Kelly is the editor of young women’s magazines such as Sassy, Jane, and YM. Some years ago she wrote a confessional piece, entitled Why Do We Need Celebrities, with these words:
“Why do we have celebrities? Here’s my theory. To be human is to feel inconsequential. So we worship celebrities and we seek to look like them. … But it’s so dumb. With this stream of perfectly airbrushed, implanted, liposuctioned stars, you would have to be an absolute powerhouse of self-esteem already not to feel totally inferior before them.”
The gospel is counter-cultural. Remember a disciple is defined as someone who follows Jesus. Luke spends a great deal of time introducing us to Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s mother, as well as Mary, Jesus’ mother. We meet the two famous sisters of the gospels, Martha and Mary. We are introduced to the unnamed woman known as the widow’s mite (Luke 21:1-4). We are also introduced to the unnamed woman who battles the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). In time, we will see its women that are the first witness to Jesus’ resurrection (Luke 24:10-11) and who report His resurrection to the Twelve disciples (Luke 24:22-24).
So women are at the center of Luke’s narrative. It’s here in Luke’s gospel that women play a significant role. No woman is mentioned as speaking against Jesus. No woman is mentioned as conniving for Jesus to be crucified. Women were last at the grave and first at the resurrection.
Three of these women are singled out for us by Luke: “Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.” (Luke 8:2b-3)
You wouldn’t see these three women met for a play date for their three kids. They were from different sides of the track. The gospel isn’t just for the down and out. Joanna is wealthy and she uses her wealth to provide for the ministry of Jesus. Joanna came from a privileged class as she is an administrative official from Herod’s court. Nothing is known about Susanna, other than she is mentioned here. She is lost to us through the pages of history. Mary Magdalene is Mary from Magdalene. She is known as Mary Magdalene because there are so many Marys surrounding Jesus. We have seen demon possession up close at Capernaum and we will again in Luke’s narrative. Although, there’s no detailed account of Jesus’ exorcism of Mary in the New Testament, Mary Magdalene’s demon possession is especially bad as the Bible tells us she was freed from seven demons. Mary follows Jesus through His entire earthly ministry. The Bible tells us she will watch the crucifixion of Jesus (Matthew 27:55-56), Mary sees where Jesus is laid after He is taken down from the cross (Luke 23:55), and Mary even anoints Jesus’ body (Luke 24:10). Mary Magdalene is a disciple. She follows Jesus.
Mark carefully that those who hear God’s Word, contribute to the overall mission of Jesus. These women use their personal finances to fund Jesus’ ministry. Disciples always respond to God’s Word. Again, the gospel is counter-cultural.
You’ll notice something about the gospel – it works like an acid for clusters. Many of you remember high school, where groups ran together. The jocks would eat together but would not include the band. The band would eat together but they would not socialize with the academic team. The gospel is an acid that eats away clusters and clicks. For the Gospel has a leveling influence. The Gospel levels the “haves” and the “have-nots.”
The Gospel isn’t just for pretty people: “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?” (1 John 3:17)
If the gospel is only successful among one stratum of society, it loses its punch. But if the gospel assembles people from both sides of the track, there is an intrigue to the gospel. There’s an attraction to the gospel’s message. The gospel of Jesus has a far-reaching impact as it stretches even to Herod’s home. The Gospel Climbs but it also climbs with each one of us.
Back to the Twelve for just a moment. The Twelve Disciples haven’t taken on any formal assignments at this point. Instead, the Bible simply says, “And the twelve were with him.” (Luke 8:1b)
“Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him…” (Luke 8:1)
Jesus isn’t just doing one thing in this passage; He’s doing two things. Jesus is not only on a preaching tour in front of us today but He’s secondarily pouring His life into the Twelve. Every disciple makes a disciple. And Jesus made disciples this way: I Do, We Do, You Do. Watch the progression carefully. The first step for the Twelve was simply to be with Jesus. It was here that they first watched Jesus do ministry – “I DO”. In time, we’ll see Jesus send them out: “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.” (Luke 10:1) This is the “WE DO” phase of the Disciples development. Lastly, Luke will show us the “YOU DO” phase in his second volume of Acts.
The Twelve falter along the way, but Jesus has a plan for their development. Discipleship is always a journey.
The Gospel Climbs
2. The Gospel Goes Viral
“No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 17 For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. 18 Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.” (Luke 8:16-18)
Just as with the three women mentioned in the beginning of Luke 8, those who hear God’s Word, contribute to the overall mission of Jesus.
“Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.” (Luke 8:18)
The imagery of the light appears several times throughout Luke’s narrative (Luke 11:33-36; 15:8). The Gospel by its very nature is light. Light expands quickly and wipes away the darkness. But, light always reveals. The gospel exposes our sin. Jesus’ teaching is light. His message is pure as He is pure. And when we become a disciple of Jesus, we take on a new identity. That’s why many of the people in the Bible take on new names. Abram becomes Abraham, Saul becomes Paul, and Cephas becomes Peter. Jesus’ gospel has out of this world quality to it. Jesus’ gospel is light. The people who originally heard Jesus’ message were accustomed to oil lamps. They knew that if you covered an oil lamp with anything, would extinguish the light. Many of you are disciples of Jesus as was the Twelve. Many of you are disciples of Jesus as was Mary, called Magdalene, and Joanna, and Susanna. And you have inside of you a message of light. You are light because of the gospel. The gospel is your identity.
In our world, you have to do something in order to become someone. In religion, this would be you have to give, you have to serve, you have to pray, you have to go to Mecca, so that God would find you pleasing in his sight. You have to reincarnate, you have to suffer, you have to go to purgatory, so that God would find you pleasing in his sight, so that you could be in a loving relationship, or at least a forgiving relationship with him. So activity creates identity.
The secular version is: you’re defined by your appearance, by your job, by your performance, by your status in life. So it’s whatever you do or accomplish that determines your identity. In Christianity, it’s completely the opposite. Through the grace of God and the work of Jesus, we receive an identity. And out of that identity, there is activity. This is not so that God would love us, but because He already has. This is not so that God would accept us, but because in Christ, He already does. So who we are determines what we do. It is not that what we do determines who we are. That’s the miracle of Christianity.
And so as God commands us to activity, it is simply the outworking of our identity. He makes us someone so we can do some things. The Gospel is not a light thing for a believer. Instead, the gospel is our identity.
Just as Jesus wasn’t just doing one thing but two things so you do two things: go on a preaching tour and make disciples. The Gospel is not something that sits lightly on us as man’s wristwatch. It cannot be taken off and on as we please. The Gospel is inside of us. The Gospel shapes us.
Do two things. Go on a preaching tour and make disciples. Begin to pray for people to hang with and to disciple. If you are a parent, you don’t need to pray. Disciple your kids at home.
The Gospel Climbs
The Gospel Goes Viral
3. The Gospel is Thicker than Blood
Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. 20 And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” 21 But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:19-21)
First, if you are Catholic, you were taught that Mary and Joseph never consummated their marriage. You can see that Catholic teaching is wrong here. Jesus had younger brothers. After Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary were married and had a normal marriage relationship.
Jesus was very busy, and you couldn’t get a meeting with him. His own mother could not get an appointment. Jesus is a very busy guy. Someone said, “Jesus, your mother’s here.” Yet Jesus is saying, “I cannot meet my mother right now. She’s not on the calendar.” His family is like, “We can’t even get in, the crowd is so tight.” We’ve already learned in Luke on a few occasions that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to be alone with the Father. That’s because the crowds would press in on him. And the crowds would demand of him, and sometimes he just needed a break, just needed a break, and some silence, and solitude, and a day off, and a place to take a nap.
Luke doesn’t tell us but the other Gospels do. Jesus’ family didn’t believe in Him. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.” (Mark 3:21) Had your brother said, “I’m God. I’m the Lord. And I’m here to die for the sins of the world,” you wouldn’t readily believe Him either. But after Jesus rose from the grave, we see Jesus’ mother, Mary, worshipping Him. We also see his own brothers, James and Jude, worshipping as well. These two would later pen books in the New Testament. Essentially, these two are saying, “Our big brother in sinless. He conquered Satan and He rose from the grave.” This is one of truly great arguments in favor of Christianity. If you can get your kid brothers to worship you, you’re someone. If your kid brothers are devout Jews who worship only God alone, and they arrive at the conclusion that the Guy on the top bunk is God, you’re really something.
Richard had no interest in actually reading the Bible. He was after all, a Muslim, and he lived in one of the strongest Muslim enclaves in Nigeria. Still, he did figure out one way to put the Bible given to him by a Christian to good use: its crackly thin pages were perfect for rolling joints and cigarettes. “Papers for rolling our own cigarettes were expensive,” Richard said. “So we would tear out pages from the Bibles and use them for our rolling papers.” On one occasion in 1978, Richard tore a page from the Bible for rolling a joint, but ended up stuffing it into his pocket. That night, bored and unable to sleep, he pulled the page of the Bible from his pocket and read these words from Psalm 34:8: “O, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.” For the next three weeks he could not get the verse out of his head. He returned to the Christian who had shared the gospel with him. One night, alone in his room, Richard prayed, “Lord God, I want to taste You like this verse says,” and that same evening accepted Christ as Savior and Lord. Richard’s Muslim family and community did not respond very well. At first they expressed concern only later they did they express their anger. Soon he received death threats. Richard was the first convert in the community, and so it felt like a grave threat to everyone. Local mosque leaders denounced him on the mosque’s outdoor loudspeakers. His own father told him that he would rather see him dead. He had to spend every night at a different missionary’s house because of the danger. Richard left for another community in Nigeria to attend Bible school. Once that was completed, he returned to his home community to pastor a church of factory and government workers who had migrated there. The death threats then resumed at a rapid clip, as well as acts of vandalism against his church building. The police looked the other way. So Richard eventually moved to the United States to protect his wife and children and to gain more Bible training.
But it’s not just in far-away countries where families have problems with you following Jesus. Some of you are really blessed to have families that love Christ. But others of you do not. In the same way, some of you will have this experience where you love your family, but they’re not Christians, and they’re giving you counsel that you just can’t take.
“I don’t think you should go to church. I don’t think you should marry a Christian. I don’t think you should give money. I don’t think you should serve. I don’t think you should be talking to people about Jesus. I don’t think you should be praying like that. I don’t think you should want other people to get saved.”
“I’m sorry, I love you, you’re family, but my identity is Christian, and my activity is Christian. And though I love you, I need to obey God, and I can’t obey you because you’re conflicting with his commands.”
True families listen and obey the voice of Jesus.
