Well, good morning and welcome
to our continuing Bible class study in the Gospel of St. Luke. We're in chapter 9 today,
and we'll be concerned with verses 37 through 45 today. So, good
to see everybody here. We'll kind of begin just by reading
this portion of scripture. Remember in our last lesson,
they were up on the Mount of Transfiguration, and they're
coming down, and this is what they encounter here in verse
37. Remember Jesus had taken Peter, James, and John up on
the Mount of Transfiguration. And it came to pass that on the
next day, when they were come down from the hill, much people
met him." There in verse 37 of chapter 9, "'And behold, a man
of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look
upon my child, for he's my only child. And lo, a spirit taketh
him, and suddenly he crieth out, and it tareth him, that he foameth
in him. hardly departeth from him, and
I besought thy disciples to cast him out, and they could not.
And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how
long shall I be with you and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And as he was yet coming, the
devil threw him down and tear him, and Jesus rebuked the unclean
spirit, and healed the child, delivered him again to his father.
And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. But while
they wondered, every one, at all the things which Jesus did,
he said unto his disciples, let these sayings sink down into
your ears, for the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands
of men. But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from
them that they perceived it not, and they feared to ask Him of
that saying." So, it's kind of not that long
of a passage of Scripture, and we're going to spend some time
looking at Mark and Matthew's accounts too, because they supply
some details there that are not in this, but give us some great
understanding about what this block of Scripture means. As
we mentioned earlier, Jesus along with Peter, John, and James just
came down from the mountain where the Lord was speaking with Moses.
He'd been speaking with Moses and Elijah concerning, it said,
his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. And
the next day they came down, there was a crowd there, a multitude
to meet him. And one of the crowd announces
in his desperation that he has a son that's taken. a spirit
has taken him and affecting disastrous carnage on him and exhibiting
a lot of symptoms that we might recognize in some way as epilepsy
and those kind of things. And he says, he sought the disciples
which had remained. Some remained down below. He
took Peter, James, and John with Him up on the mountain. These
other disciples met below. And remember that they had all
been tasked with going out, preaching the Gospel, and they were casting
out demons and healing people. But their primary task was preaching
the Gospel. And so while they're up there
on the mountain, this man approaches the disciples that remained.
and try to get them to cast out the Spirit, and they could not.
And the Lord commands that son to be brought to Him, and we
find that there's a little bit of scolding those present. He
says, O faithless and perversion, how long shall you suffer? And
then He rebukes the Spirit and delivers the son back to the
Father. Boy, what a picture of the Lord redeeming the church
there. delivering him to the father
without spot or wrinkle. It takes this one that's been
wrecked by this carnage and heals him and then delivers him back
to the father. Boy, what a picture there. Remember
in John 17, six is thine they were and thou gavest them me
and I give to them eternal life.
And then the crowd, They were all amazed at the mighty power
of God. And Jesus, as closing words regarding
this, gets us back to the focus, gets us back to the main point.
Let this, and how many times do we want to say this? Let this
saying sink down in your ears. The Son of Man shall be delivered
into the hands of men. But they understood not this
saying, and it was hid from them that they perceived it not. And
it says they were afraid to ask him more about that saying there
in verse 45. So this brief record here in
Gospel of Luke records the circumstances. And compared to Mark or Matthew,
it's pretty brief. And it's recounted in John, but
the events leading up to it and afterwards are in John, but he
leaves out this particular issue. Remember in John chapter 6, we
find the feeding of the loaves and the fishes and all those
things that we've been looking at here so far. Matthew and Mark will supply
some information that's really valuable to the study. So let's
turn over to Mark chapter 9 for just a moment. Mark's account,
chapter 9. So this is in Mark chapter nine,
it's the same time frame, the same situation. And he's talking
to them about, they ask him, well, what about Elijah? And
he said, the scriptures of Elijah must indeed come. And they have, done unto him whatsoever they
listed as written of Mark 9.13. And verse 14, and when he came
to his disciples, he came down with John and Peter and James,
and he came to the rest of his disciples, he saw a great multitude about
them. And I think it's important for
us They had kind of surrounded his disciples over this issue
with this man that had the son that had the devil in him, and
they'd kind of surrounded them. And the scribes questioning with
them, the legalists, the scribes, the ones that were tasked with
Originally the scribes, their job was to record the words of
kings and prophets. That's what their job was. And
then they kind of evolved. They're kind of like government. They just kept taking more and
more tasks on until they assumed a whole other identity. And they
became kind of the lawyers with the Pharisees. So the scribes
were questioning them. And it says in straight way in
verse 15, all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly
amazed. When they beheld Christ, they
were greatly amazed. And he asked the scribes, what
question ye with them? Why are you questioning my people? Why have you surrounded my people?
Why are you questioning my people? And then one of the multitude,
which is that man, spoke up and said, well, I have a son that
I brought, and he has a dumb spirit. And so some things there
that are brought out in Mark that kind of not brought out
specifically in Luke, but several things about this help
us in understanding that. they were being questioned. That
kind of, that word question, kind of, it's not like, what
time is it? It's a dispute. It's a disputation. And since their original task
was the faithful copying of scriptures and the words of kings and that
kind of thing, you have to wonder what they
were disputing with the disciples over. And we find that they have
a record of opposing God and disputing the Christ. And you know, the very things
that they were copying of Christ. Search the scriptures for in
them you think you have eternal life and they are they that testify
of me. And in Luke 24, he expounded to them in all the scriptures,
the things concerning himself. And he said many times, I must
fulfill everything that's written in the Law and the Prophets.
So he finds these scribes, these lawyers, those who should really
know the Gospel best, disputing with his disciples. And apparently
it's about this man's son here. And since they were opposed to
the Lord Christ, they were probably denouncing Jesus as a fraudster
and they were ridicule for following, and I can just imagine, oh yeah,
you were supposed to cast out this demon, and you're invoking
Jesus' name and nothing's working, it's all a failure, it's all
a fraud. So, to me it was very interesting
how he responds. He doesn't say anything to his
people. He says, why are you questioning
my people? Why are you scribes disputing
with them? In my Greek Interlinear, we were
talking about different translations this morning, and I used the
Greek Interlinear to look at this a little bit this morning,
and it said, he questioned them. They'd been after the scribes,
and it says, and he questioned them, what are you debating with
them? And they didn't have an answer. They were, they didn't have anything
to say back to him. As you can well imagine, him
being the Lord God Almighty. They probably said, hmm, I guess
this now would be a good time to be quiet. And their record of opposition
to him was well known. And again, at this very point
here, one speaks up from the crowd and says, well, it's my
son. He has a dumb spirit, a malevolent
spirit, And he said, and I sought the help from the disciples and
they could not, they could not help. And this, when I was reading through this,
it kind of reminded me of a little bit from, and we were talking
about this block of scripture here that I'm gonna bring up
here in a minute. And this morning we were talking
about in Exodus chapter 32, we find Moses coming down from the
mount. And what did he find when he
came down from the mountain? He found people in opposition.
And he found people that were, and there weren't very many that
were standing up for the truth. There was only a couple that
they had kind of surrounded them. And they had, Matthew Henry said,
the camp was in disarray when they came down from the mountain. And let's, this is, The two times
that he came down recounted in Exodus chapter 32 and 34 regarding
Moses and the Lord. As we look at the Mount of Transfiguration,
that's who the Lord was talking to on the Mount of Transfiguration. So I want to bring out some similarities
here between these two times because almost everything that
we find in the New Testament is pictured and shadowed and
described and talked about in the Old Testament. So as we look
at this, and remembering that the Lord had been speaking with
Moses and Elijah regarding his decease, which he should accomplish
in Jerusalem. In Exodus 32, 15, Moses turned
and went down from the mountain. The two tablets of testimony
in his hand Tablets written on their two sides, on this and
on that side, they were written. And the tablets were the work
of God, and the writing was the writing of God, and it was engraved
on the tablets. Joshua heard the voice of the
people in their shouting, and he said to Moses, a sound of
war in the camp. They were coming back to camp
together, and he says, this sounds like there's some big commotion
going on in the camp. a sound of disputing, of opposition
to God. And as I mentioned, Matthew Henry
said there was disarray in the camp. And then if you follow
on in that chapter 32, you find out what happened. They had just
went clean off the edge. Moses was barely out of their
sight and they were in opposition to God. Then they got chastised
and then Moses comes down the second time we find it in Exodus
34. Turn over to Exodus 34 if you
would in verse 28. And he was there with Jehovah
40 days and 40 nights. That's one of the few times when
they actually say the name Jehovah there instead of just translating
it Lord. He did not eat bread, and he
did not drink water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the
covenant, the Ten Commandments. And as it happened, as Moses
was going down from Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony
being in Moses' hand as he went down from the mount, the skin
of his face had become luminous through his speaking with him.
His face, or in, I think his face did shine in some Trent,
King James, I think it says. And Aaron and all the sons of
Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face did shine,
or became luminous, and they were afraid to draw near him. Well, in Mark's account that
we just read, and we'll read that again in Mark 9, 14 and
15, And when He came to His disciples,
He saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning
Him, disarray down there in that camp. And straightaway all the
people, when they beheld Him, and that would be Christ, when
they beheld Him, they were greatly amazed. Well, when you look that
word up in your Strong's Concordance, it says, that means they were
astonished and a little bit afraid. And why would that be? What about
him might cause them to be a little bit afraid and astonished? Because he was just there days
before. He'd been going around healing
people and stuff. But he'd been up on the Mount
of Transfiguration. And I think maybe his appearance
was still glorified. Because they saw him and they
said, huh, this is a little astonishing and frightening. And as Moses had been gone for
a time in like manner, Jesus had been gone not as long a time,
but the results seem to be quite similar. And those who oppose
God were busy at work sowing disharmony. And we find the same
thing here. There's nothing new. And so again, there's some more
similarities here between Luke's account and what we find in Deuteronomy
in what the Lord says. He tells these people, O faithless
and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and
suffer you? Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse
18. And again, we have this same
group of people that had witnessed all these wonderful works of
God, had been taken care of, had been delivered, crossed the
seed on dry land, all those things that we know. Deuteronomy 13.18
says, of the rock that begat thee, thou art unmindful. and hath forgotten God that formed
thee. And when the Lord saw it, he
abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and his
daughters. Mark 9.16 says, why are you questioning
my people? Why are you provoking my people?
In verse 20 of Deuteronomy 13, he said, I will hide my face
from them, I will see what their end shall be, for they are a
very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. No total
reliance on Christ for salvation. And you know, you find that recounted
for us in Hebrews chapter three and four. in the chapter on that rest.
They could not enter into rest because of unbelief, and they
died in the wilderness. Well, here we have the same kind
of similar situation. There are all these people that
had witnessed all these great works of Christ, and they're
kind of assaulting His disciples, the scribes in particular are
questioning them. Here we have an important contrast
noted by the Lord here for the disciples in the church in dealing
with the man whose son was stricken. Two important statements are
made in Mark and kind of tell us quite a bit about what we're
always saying here. Salvation is of the Lord. In Mark 9, verse 18, regarding
this, it says this man is describing this the effects that are manifest
in his son. He says, wherever he takes him,
he tears him, and he foameth, and he gnashes with his teeth,
and he pines away. And I spake to thy disciples
that they should cast him out, and they could not. And then
in verse 21, the Lord, He asked His Father, how long is it ago
since this came unto Him? And He said, of a child. He's
had most of His life there. And oft times it casts Him in
the fire and into the waters to destroy Him. But if Thou can do anything,
have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said unto Him,
if thou canst believe." The disciples could believe or not. No one
could believe for him. He says, if thou can believe,
all things are possible to him that believeth. And straight
away the father of the child cried out and said with tears,
Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. So the
disciples couldn't believe for this man And Jesus said, if thou
can believe. The belief of someone else, we
can't believe for someone else. We just don't have that ability.
The picture here is the results of unbelief, and we're gonna
find that out here. If we look in the account of
Matthew in chapter 17, we'll read that here in a minute, but it's borne out what is further
revealed a little when the disciple says, Why couldn't we cast that
demon out? Why were we a failure? And you
know, it kind of reminded me of Peter when he was walking
on the water. He had his eye on Christ, but
boy, when he took his eye off Christ and went to his own resources, then he sank. Without me, you can do nothing.
So the man here acknowledged that we have to rely on Christ
to supply our belief and our faith and our trust and our confidence
in Him alone and not on others. For the disciples, It was a lesson
in the same thing. Remember, he'd been kind of teaching
them this. He says, when you go, he just
sent these guys out, he says, I don't want you to take extra
shoes, no food, no money, don't even take two coats. And then
later on, he says, well, when I did that, and you went out,
did you lack anything? And they said, no, nothing. Well, Here's another lesson for
them. Total reliance on Christ. I am
the branch and you are the branch, I'm the vine, you're the branches,
and he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. So one of the
things that's important for the church to, it's like these people
in the wilderness. They had all these instances
where God was physically with them, it didn't mean that much. And then when you have the Lord
with them, it didn't seem to mean that much. And in some cases,
while he was there, they didn't. Does he have to be physically
present in our view at all times in order for us to exercise faith
and belief? He's a spirit, and we must worship
him in spirit and in truth. Are we faithful in trusting the
truth of the gospel? Do we keep our eye and our heart
on him, or are we like the example of Peter, where we kind of, oh,
I'm walking on the water, and then we take our eye off him,
and then, boop, down we go. So, Jesus answered them in Luke
9.41, oh, faithless, and perverse generation, how
long shall I be with you and suffer you? That faithless and
perverse means to unbelieve and to distort. That is one of the many things
that we are always up against. People are always distorting
things about the Lord, distorting the truth about Him, twisting
it and changing the truth of it. And at the end of this he
says, how long do I have to be with you? You need to let this
sink into your ears. And we like to say that all the
time too. Oh unbelieving, distorting generation. How long shall I be with you?
Bring Him to me. Look unto Christ. And so the
epilogue, kind of the closing word, we're going to go to Matthew
17. Then came the disciples to Jesus
apart. This is after it's all done,
and they're kind of moving on. And they said, why couldn't we
cast him out? You know, a few weeks ago you
gave us power over demons and ability to heal and all these things. What happened? What's up with that? And Jesus
said unto them, because of your unbelief, You took your eyes off of me
and started relying on your own self. And we find records of
that a little bit later on in Luke chapter 10. They said, we're pretty great. And even
in Luke chapter nine here, the next thing we're going to run
into is, well, They're all in a circle saying, well, which
one of us is the greatest? How many demons did you cast
out? Well, except for this guy that I couldn't. Yes, 27. How many did you? 33. You start
looking at your own resources. You start looking at your own
abilities and not relying on Christ. We just don't have that
within us. Jesus said unto them, because
of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, If you have faith as a grain
of mustard seed, if you have reliance on me, and a grain of mustard seed isn't
very much, you shall say into this mountain,
remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing
shall be impossible to you. How be it? This kind goeth not
out, but by prayer and fasting. Which brings us to another little
interesting thing there. What were they going to pray
and fast about? I need more power. I need more, I, I, I, I, I. Is your prayers start out with
I? Or is it the I that like this
guy said, I believe help thou my unbelief. is our prayer. The Son of Man goeth as it is
written of Him. So, these few verses kind of
give us a lot more understanding on this block of Scripture here. In Luke 9.46 there arose a reasoning
among them which of them should be greatest. So he told them the answer lay
here in prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting about what
and about whom. In prayer, are we recommending
ourselves and our abilities to God? Are we fasting for the wrong
purposes? Are we fasting to achieve greater
power? Are we fasting to, like those
scribes and the Pharisees, I fast twice during the week. And I
do it, I put stuff on my face so it makes me look like I'm
starving myself so everybody will know that I'm fasting. And
I kind of tell everybody about it. so they'll know that I'm
extra religious, and what is the purpose of it? And the hint of the Lord was,
let these sayings sink into your ears. The Son of Man shall be
delivered. for what purpose? For the redemption
of the church. That is the main focus. That's
the saving of the Lord's people. He shall save His people from
their sins. And this other stuff is just side issues. It's not the main thing. He gave them power over that
stuff. He says, go and tell the Gospel. And then He tells them
in chapter 10, If we ever get to chapter 10, he says, rejoice
not that the spirits are subject unto you, but that your names
are written in heaven. That's what you should be rejoicing
about. And so with that, we'll stop there. And as always from
John chapter eight, be free my friends.