Let's turn to the Scriptures
and we're going once again to Luke's Gospel, chapter 10. Luke's Gospel, chapter 10. Luke's Gospel, chapter 10. We're just going to read a couple
of verses again today, verse 23 and 24. This is the Lord Jesus Christ that
is being spoken of here, and Luke tells us in chapter 10,
verse 23, And he turned him unto his disciples and said privately,
Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I
tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those
things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those
things which ye hear, and have not heard them. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. I think it's important that we
take the big passages and the little passages together and
give them suitable weight. And I wanted just to think about
these two verses together because I think they're, like the verses
last week, they have a message all of their own. And we can
be blessed, I think, by just pausing and thinking about some
of these. verses, these phrases, which
perhaps occasionally we tend to move over, moving between
the more famous accounts from the ministry of the Lord. I take
it to be the 12 and the 70 disciples that the Lord Jesus is speaking
to on this occasion and in the particular way that he speaks. And it might not seem very important,
but I'm going to make a little point about the fact that he
spoke to his disciples privately. I suggest that the private approach
that he took in speaking to them merits our attention, at least
in the passing. as it seems to have been important
to the Holy Spirit to note that it was a private conversation
and it was important for Luke to record that it was a private
comment, private conversation. In his ministry, there were things
that the Lord Jesus said publicly and did openly. and there were
things done quietly and spoken in private. As it was then, so it continues
today. We have a calling to preach the
whole counsel of God's grace. Preach it promiscuously, preach
it widely, publicly, openly. And yet our Lord Jesus Christ,
whose gospel this is, does not reveal himself equally in the
gospel to every man and every woman. There are some, many,
whose eyes remain closed to the truths of Scripture. There are
many whose ears remain shut And yet the Lord Jesus Christ delights
to draw his own dear people apart and speak to them privately of
the things concerning himself. Teach them about who he is. Teach them about what he has
done. Teach them the doctrines and
the revelations, the theology, the messages of God that God
the Father gave to him. and commissioned him to declare
to this world and to the men and women of this world. And
is this not what is happening even here today? In this little
gathering, here is a select group that, as it were, the Lord has
called apart, the Lord has called aside from the busyness of our
day, from the activities of our day, in order to speak to us
privately. It's true that we're happy to
speak to all who will hear. When I'm preaching on a Sunday
and we finish the service and I say to people, if you would
like to come and join us, then you're welcome to do that. Now
I'm speaking to those who are gathered there in the moment,
but I'm also speaking insofar as that message is technically
able to be heard anywhere in the world, I'm speaking to anyone
who would take the initiative and ask to be part of our service
tonight, for example, or to be part of any service that we were
conducting. And yet when we meet though we
are happy to speak to any who will hear and share with all
who desire to know more about the glorious things of the gospel,
and although we are disappointed that not more do appear to have
desires after these things, do we not also often find ourselves
saying that those who were supposed to be here were present, those
who were supposed to hear, were drawn by the Lord, that those
whose hearts the Lord opens, as Lydia's was opened, attended
unto the things which were spoken. That's what the Acts of the Apostle
tells us. The Lord opened her heart and
she attended unto the things which were spoken. Our Lord does
not tell everyone everything, and he still speaks privately
to his disciples, informing us of our peculiar blessings, appraising
us of our rich inheritances and our special privileges in Christ. And our common salvation isn't
common to all. and there are but few in truth
who are given eyes to see and ears to hear. Furthermore, there
are experiences in the Christian life that not all believers partake
in. There are trials and there are
joys that only a few are called to bear or experience. And we should always be careful
not to measure our own lives by the lives of others because
each of us is unique and we ought not to be surprised if and when
the Lord turned him and said privately. The Lord comes to
us and ministers privately, and whether he comes to us and ministers
in that way, or he comes to another and ministers in that way, then
we should not be surprised if the Lord takes that initiative
and exercises that prerogative. Rather, let our prayer be, Lord,
give me grace to walk this pathway which you have given me. It may
seem lonely, it may seem atypical to the things that are going
on in other people's lives at this time. It may be unique,
but it is the path that God has chosen for me. It is the path
that God has chosen for you and given to me and you. So we say, give us grace to stay
the distance and to prove your love and your faithfulness to
us in it. We have been bequeathed, in this
little couple of verses here in Luke chapter 10, we have been
given the private comments of the Saviour on this occasion. so that all the church can share
in the private comment that the Lord made to his disciples here,
the blessings spoken of by the Lord Jesus. And he tells his
disciples how blessed they are to have seen and heard the things
that they now see and hear. In saying this, the Lord is undoubtedly
speaking of those things that the disciples were seeing and
hearing of his ministry with their physical eyes and ears,
but also with their spiritual understanding. It was the disciples'
great privilege to see the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh and
speak to him in person, face to face. They, these individuals,
distinct from all those who ever lived before and all those who
have ever come after, personally witnessed the bodily presence
of the Lord Jesus on earth. They personally saw his miracles,
heard his doctrines, received his gospel from his own lips. and at least some were eyewitnesses
to his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw Christ's
glory in other ways as well. John says in his gospel, in the
opening chapter of his gospel, the word was made flesh and dwelt
amongst us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Many, many
people at that time amongst the common people, amongst the religious
leaders, even kings and governors like Herod and Pilate saw Christ
in the flesh with their bodily eyes. but they saw no beauty
in him. They saw nothing desirable in
him. They did not understand the power,
the spiritual meaning of the things that he was doing and
the things that he was saying. But these 12, these disciples,
the 12 and the 70, and others, saw the glory and majesty of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. They saw Him and with spiritual
eyes, with spiritual ears, with spiritual illumination, they
recognised and knew Him to be the Anointed One of God, the
Saviour of the world, the Redeemer of His people. And they believed
and were sure that He was the Christ, the Son of the living
God. In all this, they were indeed
blessed, as the Lord Jesus Christ says. Others had seen the promise,
the Old Testament saints, the patriarchs, Moses and the prophets,
believers in the Old Testament times, the Old Dispensation,
as it is sometimes called. They discerned Christ in the
types and the symbols, in the rituals and the sacrifices. And
they can all be said to have seen him, and heard him in these
types. And they heard and saw the things
that Christ would be and Christ would do when he would come.
And they believed he would come. Like Job, they knew that their
Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon
the earth. So in many ways, these men and
women of old, discerned by faith, the person of Christ, his work
and his sacrifice, his death and his intercession, his mediatorial
offices, prophet, priest, and king, these were all hidden. These were all revealed slightly. They were shown in shadowy form. But these men and women, these
privileged men, and we do include the women amongst them, although
they may not have been amongst the 12 of the 70 disciples, yet
the Lord had a special affinity for these women who travelled
with him also. They were amongst the Lord's
closest followers and friends. They saw and they heard and they
understood all these things intimately and personally. in the real presence
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And I think there's something
very precious about the Lord saying to these disciples, but
I tell you. But I tell you, he is speaking
here in the ears of these men. He is speaking to them face to
face and he tells them these things with this intimacy. How
many voices there are in the world. How many, perhaps especially
today, who clamour for attention and they try to dazzle and beguile
and coerce. It is very blessed for us to
be able to return to the Scriptures and read and hear Christ's own
words, the Lord's own words when he says, but I tell you. Matthew, in his account of this
passage, he adds verily in this phrase so that there's both a
truly and an amen in Christ's assertions when he tells us,
but I tell you, I tell you truly, I, the great amen, tell you these
things and they are true. What did he tell us? He told
us that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things
which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear these things
which ye hear, and have not heard them. They were blessed because
they did. Blessed are you for hearing and
seeing these things. The disciples did, and we have
as well. Now it's true that we no longer
see the Lord Jesus with our natural eyes, but we have the eyewitness
testimony of these men and we have the gift of faith to believe
it. Peter said, For we have not followed
cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. I think that is such an important, prescient, is that
the right word? Verse. It's present, it's right
up to date with what The world alleges against Christ. The world
would look at a believer and say, what you are believing is
a cunningly devised fable. And it's the very words that
Peter uses. We've not followed cunningly
devised fables. but we were eyewitnesses of Christ's
majesty. And John, he confirms this, that
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled of the word of life. I said, or I have been saying
to the young people a few times recently on the Lord's Day, that
we should not imagine that the Old Testament believers were
in some way more blessed than us for the miracles and the material
evidences that they were given. They always saw through a glass
darkly. but we see in the full light
of day. The fullness of the revelation
of God in Jesus Christ is here for us today. In all of history,
in all the world, we are the most blessed with these earliest
New Testament believers, and perhaps even more so, dare I
say, because Jesus told Thomas that there was another blessing
for us, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed
are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Let me just
leave a couple of applications from these verses, if I may. Let us, let you and me cherish
the full revelation that we have of God in Christ. Our God in
times past spoke by the prophets. But in these last days he has
spoken unto us by his Son. And Christ told his disciples
he would send the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father
will send in my name. He shall teach you all things
and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have
said unto you. When we come to the scriptures,
when we read the prophets, when we read the gospels, when we
read the epistles, let us ask the Holy Spirit to teach us all
things and to bring all things to a remembrance that Christ
has said. The gospel is Christ's private
word to us. And secondly, let us cherish
the word that is publicly preached and attend to it by all means. But also let us look for that
which is privately applied as well. My lessons in the Lord's
classroom will not be your lessons, nor yours mine. There's a personal
walk with the Lord that every believer enjoys. And maybe the
old men spoke more about this than we do today, but I fear
that is because we are, in the main, too busy. Isn't there an
irony there? That the more we have time-saving
gadgets, the less time we seem to have to dwell and meditate
upon the Word of God. We're in the main too busy. We
should listen for the Lord's private words. We should meditate
upon his personal dealings with us and take to heart as precious
those particular lessons that he teaches us when we come to
the Word. And I'm not suggesting that we're
looking for private doctrines like the charismatics do or those
who deny the sufficiency of scripture, but we should expect private
applications of the revealed word as the Lord meets us where
we are and ministers to our individual and personal needs. And then
just lastly, and then I'm done. What shall we say if these prophets
and kings longed to see and hear the things of Christ and the
things of his doctrine? Surely we should not be careless
or thoughtless about our blessings. Is it possible that we are so
rich that we take these matters for granted and think less about
them than we should? We've been speaking about how
Paul's doctrine in Romans is designed to comfort and encourage
and rejoice and bless the Lord's people. Our faith is practical
and it is fit for the trials of life, the trials that we all
face because the Lord Jesus walked this way before and he knows
our needs and he knows our hearts. These Old Testament believers
were called to believe in relative darkness, and they did. And we are supplied with the
full light of the glorious revelation. Even the availability of our
Bibles and our familiarity with doctrines God's provision to
his church of faithful preachers are all privileges granted to
our generation that many generations in the past just never had. So
let us cherish and value them as the blessings that they are.
We see and we hear spiritual things every day that the prophets
and kings of old could only dream about and never imagined possible. May the Lord enable us to grasp
the privilege that we have to hear him speak in these days.
Amen.