JESUS SHOWS BELIEVERS HIS GLORY
LUKE 6:17-26 FEBRUARY 16, 2003
LUKE 6:17-26
17He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, 18who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, 19and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
20Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
23"Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
24"But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. 25Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. 26Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
When we look at the life of Jesus, we see He was always intent on a few things. First and foremost, Jesus went out to preach the kingdom of God and repentance so that mankind would be saved. That was His foremost mission. In that foremost mission, we see many other things that took place because of that. In our text we see His healing, His words of blessing (we’re going to look at that). We also see the fact that He gave glory to His heavenly Father. It is during these weeks of Epiphany that we look at the glory of Jesus and the power that He has—the power as He shows us this morning through words and through actions. We understand that too, that was part of His mission, that God would be glorified. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world"(JOHN 17:24). Jesus speaks these words towards the end of His earthly life. Jesus says this because His Father still would be glorified—even in Jesus’ death--and He says it so that His disciples would see His glory. The Lord wants us to see His glory every day, even today no less than others. We look at what the Lord has placed before us this morning with that theme
JESUS SHOWS BELIEVERS HIS GLORY
I. With powers of healing
II. With words of blessing
I. With powers of healing
Just before these verses, the Lord picks out twelve apostles from the many disciples. By this time in the life of Jesus, many people were following Him and wanted to be known as His followers. Jesus chose twelve men whom we know as His apostles. They had been on a mountainside alone, that they might meditate together and pray together. Our text begins: 17He went down with them and stood on a level place. They came down from the mountain. We find again, that they are not alone. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon. In other words, they came from all directions—from the east, from the south--in order to hear Jesus. Today in our text, we find that they come not only to hear but also to see and benefit from His power. They came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. The word about Jesus had spread. He not only preached a good message but He also could perform miracles. Some had come to hear; some had come to be cured.
We notice once again how Satan, during these days when Jesus was walking upon the earth, certainly was trying to make it more difficult for Jesus to just preach the gospel. We are given the example…Luke writes: Those troubled by evil spirits were cured. During Jesus’ lifetime there were many evil spirits in the world—Satan was using this as his last chance to stop Jesus, to detract Him from proclaiming the message of salvation. Satan, by sending out many evil spirits into many people, was hoping that Jesus would never make it to the cross to pay for the sins of the world.
The glory of Jesus revealed was seen in His acts of powers of healing. The people realized that Jesus was so powerful that not only did He not even have to speak the word, not only did He not have to wave His hand over people, but we’re told: and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. There was the power of God flowing from His clothes. The crowds tried to touch Jesus to be healed. The believers saw Jesus glory. They also saw the glory of God the Father in that way. The believers were attracted to this glory.
It’s the same way when people in our world are attracted to God’s power. At times people tend forget about God. When things go badly or when they want to be healed, they find it is convenient to find God once again. They look to Him and expect Him to help them right now. We saw some examples in our lesson today—the man with leprosy came to Jesus, the ruler came to the prophet Elisha—both were healed. You and I are able to see the power of God day in and day out in His glory. We’re reminded that He gives us those examples of His miracles so that people would know. One time when Jesus was teaching, preaching and healing, His enemies came and said, ‘How can you do such things? You’re only a person.’ In MATTHEW 9:6 we read: "But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . .Then he said to the paralytic, ’Get up, take your mat and go home.’" The Lord Jesus showed people that He could heal and in the same breath He showed that He could also forgive sins. In the end, that is what Jesus is concerned about most. He has power to do both of these things—to heal peoples’ bodies and to heal peoples’ souls.
Jesus reminds believers, you and I are to come to Him. We don’t see Jesus standing here and we don’t hear about Him preaching out in the lonely places in our day and age because He sits at God’s right hand. We still come to Him with our prayers. We still come to Him and speak to Him seeking the help that we need. We still come to Him and speak to Him, seeking the help that our families need, that our churches need, that our country needs. As believers we know that God’s power heals. Even the world has now admitted to God’s power. Our modern medical community has done different studies and finds that those with faith, with some kind of religion, no matter what it might be, have much better and quicker recoveries. The medical community has also discovered that prayer is powerful, that it’s able to help people heal beyond medicine. That is the glory of Jesus in His powerful acts of healing. The Lord reminds us that He shows us glory in this way—that He answers our prayer. "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him"(1 JOHN 5:14,15).
The people came to Jesus wanting to hear Him, wanting to be healed of their diseases and they simply touched Him. His power flowed out and they were healed. We come to Jesus seeking His help and we touch Him with our prayers. We ask Him. He answers. We know that what we ask, He hears and He replies. Sometimes we may not be as anxious and as excited as the crowds were and forget the power that is there--the glory that God has--the ability to show us His Son, our Savior. Sometimes in our limited understanding, we limit our unlimited God. The things that you and I are bound by do not bind him; He can do all things. Paul tells us in Ephesians: "(Jesus) is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us"(EPHESIANS 3:20). Jesus does more than what we might even think about. He’s able to do it because He knows our needs better than you and I know them.
In this way, Jesus shows us His glory. His glory attracts us to Him by His powers of healing and with words of blessing.
II. With words of blessing
The words that Jesus speaks here are really a summary of His Sermon on the Mount. If you want to read more of these words of blessing, turn to Matthew 5 when you go home today. It’s about twice the size of the woes and words of blessing here in Luke. These words of Jesus contain Christian contrast. They sound strange on the surface, but we know that there is a deeper meaning for believers. Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. The disciples were going to be poor, they gave up everything, but they would inherit the kingdom of God. 21Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Those who would long for God’s word, they that were hungry would be given the Bread of Life. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Those who were saddened by their sinfulness would find and discover the joy of eternal salvation in the Lord’s loving forgiveness. They would be blessed.
Jesus continues: 22Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. No one likes not to be liked. When we look at the disciples that is what would happen to them time and again. They would be disliked, they would be made fun of, and they would be rejected. It was not really the disciples who were rejected but God’s message. Jesus said they would be blessed and then explains why. 23"Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. He says when they are rejected, when men don’t want to hear God’s Word, they can remind themselves it was the same with Elijah, Isaiah, and with Jeremiah. These great prophets of God also spoke the truth of God and were rejected by the people of God. Those are the blessings that would reveal the glory of God to Jesus’ disciples and believers.
Now Jesus goes on and talks about the flip side. He talks about the woes (really just opposites of the blessings). 24"But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Those who were wealthy had found what they wanted. They weren’t looking for anything else. They would not receive anything else in eternity. 25Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Those who were satisfied didn’t look for anything beyond this life. They wouldn’t receive it. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. We know that people, in the philosophy of life think, ‘Eat, drink and be merry…’ They forget that there is a judgment day but judgment day will not forget them. 26Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. When people say such nice things, they agreed with the false prophets, and that is not a good thing. People gather around them people to say what their itching ears want to hear.
These words of warning are for all men. They stand as words of warning for us today too, as believers. They remind us not to put so much confidence and emphasis on the glory of mankind, the glory of things around us and the glory of this world. They remind us to see God’s glory; they warn us, just as He warns mankind, not to become too satisfied with the things of this world. He warns us not to be too attached to what we can see, feel and touch; not to be caught up in the philosophy in this world: that we need to keep up with everyone else, even make a better life for ourselves here on earth. There are many in this world that live in this world with heaven on earth. As Jesus said, they have found everything they wanted. In eternity, they are going to find nothing. In James, the fifth chapter, he warns the people about their riches and their wealth saying that it could lead them astray, it does them no good. "Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days"(JAMES 5:3). He says they will cry out in judgement against you. So, God’s Word warns us.
Jesus reminds us of the blessing in his words because of the power of word of the Lord our God--the power to change our hearts from sin darkened hearts of stone into hearts of flesh so that we can understand, see and appreciate God’s great goodness. When we look at our lives, we realize that they stand full of sin and tainted by evil. When we look at the life of Jesus, we realize His life was perfect. We realize what we have to bring to Him, it is nothing but our sinfulness. When we look at what Jesus gives us, we rejoice that He gives us His forgiveness. We read the beautiful words of Psalm 103. "He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him"(PSALM 103:10,11). These are words of blessing to remind us as we sorrow over our sin, we rejoice over God’s forgiveness.
As this world cannot satisfy us, we realize we are satisfied by the Bread of Life. When the world says there is nothing to be content about in this life except to worry about the future, the Lord gives us divine contentment. From Timothy, Paul wrote: "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it"(1 TIMOTHY 6:6,7). Every one of us, no matter how poor we might feel, have a lot more than we started with. We’re going to have a lot more when we leave this life. We cannot take any of it with us when we leave this world. Instead, the Lord reminds us that godliness with contentment is great gain. God’s Word reminds us this morning if we want to see the glory of Jesus, we will have to pursue godliness, we will have to seek righteousness, because then we see God, we see His glory.
The Lord reveals to believers His glory. He shows us that through His miracles and His words. This glory is what attracts us to Him. It draws believers to Him as it did when great crowds came to hear Him, when great crowds came to be healed by Him. That is the glory of Jesus in His word that reminds us of these truths over and over again. May we always be attracted to that glory of Jesus. May we be like the prophet Jeremiah, when we are attracted to the Lord and find that glory in His word. "When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty" (JEREMIAH 15:16). Yes, you and I bear the name of the Lord God Almighty, in order that not only might we see His glory but we too would reflect His glory in a world darkened by sin. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
