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Day 115

Luke 9: 43-50 "A QUICK REVIEW OF THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD JESUS"

Day 115 – Luke 9

Text: Luke 9: 43-50

A QUICK REVIEW OF THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD JESUS

As Luke wrote his Gospel narrative, he faithfully recorded the exciting ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. His ministry fulfilled the prophetic Scriptures (Luke 4:18; Isaiah 61:1-3).

Luke portrayed the Lord Jesus as the Promised Messiah. He had come to redeem His people. He had come to proclaim the Kingdom of God. He had come to bring salvation to all who believed in Him.

His words of grace, His deep insight of the Scriptures, His power to heal all who came to Him were meant to help the multitudes to come to faith in Him. He had specially chosen some to be His Disciples so that they could be trained to carry on the ministry that He would leave behind Him one day.

AN IMPORTANT CHANGE

The Lord Jesus had been content to allow His Disciples to slowly discover His true Identity as the Messiah. After some time, the Lord Jesus began to examine the knowledge and faith of His Disciples. They had to come to a fairly deep understanding by now!

He had asked them directly, “But who do you say that I am? (Luke 9:20). When they were able to answer correctly, and from their hearts, that Jesus was “The Christ of God” (Luke 9:20), He began to teach them even deeper truths!

We may speak of the Confession of Peter as a marker, for a significant change in the teaching ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ! He began to speak of His suffering and His death (Luke 9:22).

The Disciples were of course unsure of what He actually meant. They just could not fathom what their Teacher was trying to emphasize to them! How could He speak of suffering when the present context of ministry was so wonderful?

REPEAT OF THE TEACHING ON SUFFERING

The healing of the demonized boy was so glorious, that Luke recorded the reaction of the people,

“And they were all amazed at the majesty of God.”
Luke 9:43

Each and every miracle of the Lord Jesus merited this kind of response! However, in this particular instance, the unclean spirit seemed even more vicious and wicked! Thus when Jesus rebuked the demon and healed the young lad, there was such a sense of relief and gladness, and many hearts were drawn to think about the majesty of God!

In the midst of the joyous response of the people, the Lord Jesus repeated His teaching of His personal suffering to His Disciples. The multitudes may not understand Christ’s ultimate purpose for coming to earth. His primary purpose was not healing those who were demonized! His final purpose was to atone for the sins of many. That work of atonement would involve deep suffering. Even though the Disciples did not fully understand this truth, nevertheless He had to teach them this aspect of His ministry.

“LET THESE WORDS SINK DOWN INTO YOUR EARS…” Luke 9:44

The Lord Jesus knew only too well the difficulties that His Disciples were having with this particular teaching. They had been taught much. They had learned so many new things already. It seemed as if with each new day, they were discovering wonderful, new truths about their Teacher. However, this truth seemed particularly hard to understand!

We catch a glimpse of how Jesus taught His Disciples in this portion of Scripture:-

1. The Lord Jesus would of course focus on expounding His Teaching to His Disciples. (Luke 6:17-49)

2. He would teach the multitudes with parables, but would always take time to teach His Disciples in greater depth. (Luke 8:9-18)

3. The Disciples were sent out to do field work. They had to put into practice what they had learned. (Luke 9:1-6)

4. The Lord Jesus also took time to assess their knowledge and understanding of the spiritual truths taught to them (Luke 9:18-20). It was essential that they knew who He really was – that He was indeed the Christ of God!

5. The Lord at the appropriate moment would also introduce new truths to His Disciples. One of these great truths was the fact that He would suffer and die! The Disciples were to let His Words sink deeply into their hearts!

6. The Master-Teacher had to repeat His lesson, till His pupils fully comprehended it!

“The Son of Man is about to be betrayed
into the hands of men.”
Luke 9:44

“BUT THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND THIS SAYING, AND IT WAS HIDDEN FROM THEM…” Luke 9:45

Why did the Disciples not understand this particular lesson of the Suffering of the Messiah? We could come up with several reasons:-

1. They did not have a full comprehension of ALL the prophetic literature concerning the Person and Ministry of the Messiah, some of which described His suffering (e.g. Isaiah 53).

2. It was too painful for the Disciples to accept what Jesus was trying to teach them, for they had grown to care for their Teacher very deeply.

3. We are given another glimpse as to why they failed to understand what Jesus was seeking to teach them. At this point of time, at this point of their faith, God had hidden the full comprehension of this truth from the Disciples. This is a truly profound truth that warrants deep meditation. The revelation of truth and the understanding of it is often tied to spiritual maturity. The fear of the Disciples to inquire further did not help them at all.

Are we not like the Disciples of old? Do we not also fail to have the kind of spiritual maturity the Lord would like us to possess?