"The Gospel of Luke (62): Jesus Christ our Prophet" April 21, 2024

The Gospel Spreads to the Gentiles in Acts 11

We see the gospel opening up to the Gentile world, and then further in Acts chapter 11, we see how this gospel is beginning to spread out into the world. Acts chapter 11.

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him saying, you went to uncircumcise men and ate with them.

But Peter began and explained it to them in order. I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance, I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down.

To me.

Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air, and I heard a voice saying to me, rise, Peter, kill and eat. But I said, by no means, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.

But the voice answered a second time from heaven, what God has made clean, do not call common. This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. And behold, at that very moment, three men arrived at the house in which we were sent to me from Caesarea, and the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction.

These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. And he told us how he had seen the angels stand in his house and say, send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter. He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.

As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized by the Holy Spirit.

If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way? When they heard these things, they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.

Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus.

And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas.

To Antioch.

When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.

So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the earth. This took place in the days of Claudius.

So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

Prayer for Understanding God's Word

Let's pray.

Our Father, we thank you for the Gospel, and we thank you that you opened it up to Gentiles so that all men would believe. We thank you for the Apostles, we thank you for pastors and teachers throughout the ages who have proclaimed your name, and we pray, Lord, that we would hear and understand your word.

We pray that today we would hear and understand your word, as Pastor Lars teaches. We pray that we would have a greater understanding of your character, a greater understanding of your will. We pray, Lord, that we would submit to you, surrender our own will, and that we would follow after yours.

We pray, Lord, that you would help us in all of these things. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Growing in the Knowledge of Christ

Well, let's turn once again to Luke 13. Hopefully we'll finish this chapter this morning. Now, it is our desire, of course, as Christians, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The world believes that you grow as a person through attaining a better knowledge of yourself, make a study of yourself. Jesus said, learn of me, and you'll find rest in your souls. The world makes a study of the wrong person, and so God's word teaches us that it's through our knowledge of Jesus Christ that God sanctifies us.

Many Christians don't understand this. Pastor, just tell me what I'm supposed to do. They think in those terms. The scriptures tell us that we are to proclaim Jesus Christ, and as you look to him and see him, the Holy Spirit will transform you.

And so, as we look to Jesus Christ, we increase our knowledge of him. We become more like him in thought and character. Peter wrote of this in the opening words of his second epistle. He wrote of the transformative acquisition of knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you. Where is this found? In the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as his divine power is given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. How or through what instrument?

What means? Through the knowledge of him who calls us by glory and virtue. Of course, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. If we focus our minds and hearts upon Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will make us like him, though we may not be fully aware of the work he's performing in our souls.

Paul wrote of the Holy Spirit's work in this matter in 2 Corinthians 3 .18, which reads, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, it's like a spiritual mirror. You see Jesus Christ in that mirror rather than your own face, but lo and behold, we're being transformed into the same image that is the image of Christ from glory to glory just as by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God.

And so we should focus and attempt to know Jesus Christ more clearly and fully from the scriptures and to the degree you do, and God blesses that, the Holy Spirit will transform your life. And so let's turn to Luke 13, 31 through 35, in which we may learn more about our Lord Jesus and as we do, may the Holy Spirit continue his transformative work of grace in our lives.

Jesus' Warning to Herod and His Resolve to Go to Jerusalem

Before us, we read again of our Lord's conflict with the Jewish leaders, of the Pharisees as he and his disciples were journeying toward Jerusalem, their final journey. On that very day, some Pharisees came, say to him, get out, depart from here for Herod wants to kill you.

And he said to them, go tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons, perform a cure today, tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless, I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.

Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent.

To her.

How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hand gathers her brood under her wings, but you are not willing. See your house is left to you desolate, assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see me until the time comes when you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

So the Lord Jesus and his apostles and many disciples were on their way to Jerusalem. And some Pharisees, Jewish religious leaders approached him saying, get away from here for King Herod is after you, he wants to kill you.

Now it's with some difficulty we may determine where our Lord was when this event occurred. One might assume that he was still in the region of Galilee for King Herod was the Jewish king over the entire region of Galilee.

We might assume if Jesus were to escape Herod, he must therefore leave Galilee. But we've already read that Jesus had departed Galilee and come into the region of Samaria where he and his disciples had borne witness of the kingdom.

But Herod was ruler over another region other than Galilee, which was to the Southeast and separated from Galilee. This was the region of Perea. And on the last page of these notes, I provided a map and you can see these two regions actually separated by some geography, but King Herod was the one who ruled over each of those regions on behalf of Rome.

And so it's likely that our Lord had left Galilee and had been traveling in Samaria for a time, but at some point crossed over the Jordan River eastward into Perea to minister there or for proceeding on to Jerusalem in the region of Judea.

And you can see where Jerusalem is located on that map also, probably southwest of Perea. We do not know with certainty the motives of the Pharisees for approaching Jesus in this manner from their representation of the Jewish gospel thus far, however, we would think that they were not really concerned about the safety of our Lord.

When they said, get out of here, King Herod wants to kill you. After all, they had already sought ways to bring accusation against Jesus. We read that back in Luke six, verse seven, and we read they had been filled with rage and disgust with one another, what they might do to Jesus.

These Pharisees were not concerned about his safety. And on one occasion, after our Lord had rebuked them, we read of their reaction. As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail him vehemently and to cross-examine him about many things, lying in wait for him, seeking to catch him in something he might say that they might accuse him.

That was just a couple of chapters ago, Luke chapter 11. Why then did they come to Jesus on this occasion saying to him, get out and depart from here for Herod wants to kill you? Well, it's most likely that they wanted him out of their territory because of the influence he was having on their people.

So by this warning, therefore, they hoped to scare Jesus away from that region that he would act or react out of fear of his life. Well, that didn't go very far. It may be that these Pharisees were attributing it to Herod false desires and motivations.

In other words, they made up this warning. We read earlier of Herod's response when he heard of Jesus, it was not one of abject hostility or murderous intent, but rather of curiosity. We read earlier in Luke these words, now Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was done by him, by Jesus, and he was perplexed because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again.

Herod said, John I beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things? So he sought to see him, doesn't say he sought to kill him, as the Pharisees charge. And later we read that when Pilate sent Jesus bound to Herod in Jerusalem, that Herod was not openly hostile to Jesus then.

Herod was unjust, clearly, but not necessarily hostile. Herod found Jesus to be innocent of any charge that warranted execution. We read in Luke 23, when Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the men were Galilean, and as soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.

Now when Herod saw Jesus, notice, he was exceedingly glad, for he had desired for a long time to see him, because he had heard many things about him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by him. So the Pharisees may have been attempting to frighten Jesus away by fabricating Herod's desire to kill Jesus.

Herod was noted for his cruelty and injustice, and so it would have been quite easy and reasonable for these Pharisees to present Herod to have nefarious desires. And the noted commentator that was quoted quite a bit, I .H. Marshall, wrote of their motivation, it's most likely that their caution here is motivated by malice, and that they were trying, like Herod, to get Jesus to make himself scarce.

For Jesus, the warning presented itself as a temptation to follow human advice and ignore God's plan for his ministry. But of course, he did not yield in any way. We read that Jesus responded to them in verse 32, he said to them, go tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons, perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

So here Jesus denounced the character of this king as that fox. It was clear that no fear of man characterized Jesus. Jesus manifested courage in the face of threats and danger. Our Reformation Study Bible has a footnote that defines what had been understood by the Jews of that day by the description of Herod as a fox.

The Jews used the metaphor of a fox to mean worthless and sly. Jesus is unmoved by Herod's threats and says he will continue with his ministry. And so Jesus calling Herod that fox would have had really a twofold meaning.

First, Jesus was stating the fact that King Herod was a cunning, diabolical man, and he was known in history as that. He was a man without integrity. And second, fox, in reference to a king of Israel, would perhaps have been understood as a declaration he was no lion sitting on the throne, one after the order of King David.

In other words, Herod was a man without dignity and majesty suited to his position. Essentially, Jesus was saying he knows where to find me, but I'm not going to be diverted from my task. Perhaps too often we're not as forthright as we should be in identifying corrupt and ungodly men in authority.

Certainly, we're told to honor the king, honor all those in authority, but it's not wrong to state plainly a matter with respect to an unjust or corrupt person in power. Luke 13 .32 is a very frank and fearless message that Herod, you tell that fox that I'm going to continue my ministry and I'm not going to be cowered by his threats.

Jesus said he would continue to cast out demons and perform cures. The reference to casting out demons and healing the sick was a statement that Jesus would continue to manifest himself openly to Israel as the Messiah.

He would not be deterred by threats to his safety. And Jesus declared, behold, I cast out demons, perform cures today, tomorrow, and the third day, I shall be perfected. Curious word. Perhaps ESV is better or to be preferred.

Behold, I cast out demons, perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day, I finish my course. Would be a better way to explain that. He would accomplish his mission. Of course, he was alluding to his betrayal, crucifixion in Jerusalem.

In verse 33, Jesus used similar words, nevertheless, I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following, again, three days mentioned, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.

Although there are some attempts to make the phrase today, tomorrow, and the day following to be understood literally, we need not take this expression to be a literal three days. It can be regarded as simply having been an idiom, a saying to express the idea of soon and most certainly, this will take place.

He would arrive in Jerusalem where the climax of his life and ministry would take place. Perhaps he was only three days distance from Jerusalem, but we know from Luke's account that it would be a number of days before he would yet arrive to that city.

One commentator described our Lord's response to the Pharisees this way, the sense of the whole passage seems to be, we are still three days walk from Jerusalem. To Jerusalem I must get, to die there, for Jerusalem has become the natural place for prophets to perish in.

So you need not threaten me with death from Herod, it's not within his jurisdiction, there I must die. Jerusalem was in Judea, and of course Pontius Pilate was the governor over Judea, outside of Herod's authority.

And so in the face of possible danger, Jesus not only showed forth his courage, but he also demonstrated his commitment to complete the work and mission that his father had set before him. When he had set out from Galilee for Jerusalem on this last occasion, he was resolute and.

Resolved.

His face was set like a flint, according to Isaiah 53, to accomplish a journey and fulfill his destiny on his cross. And so the commitment of our Lord Jesus to do his father's will was absolute, and even the threat of death could not divert him from his father's will to reach Jerusalem, for it was there he would die.

Matthew Henry, as he always did in his commentary, by the way, he always has a personal application preceded with the word note. You can look down his commentary, every time you see the word note, he's drawing an application for you and me, which is very helpful.

And he wrote regarding this, note, it is good for us to look upon the time we have before us as but a little, two or three days, perhaps maybe the utmost, that we may thereby be quickened to do the work of the day in its day.

And it is a comfort to us, in reference to the power and malice of our enemies, that they can have no power to take us off as long as God has any work for us to do. The witnesses were not slain till they had finished their testimony, good counsel.

The common expression is a truism, the Christian is immortal until he completes the work to which God has called him. Let us recognize that the commitment that he exhibited himself is the same degree of commitment he expects of his disciples, of you and me.

In the next chapter, chapter 14 of Luke, we will read of our Lord's words to his disciples, whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Jesus cannot be deterred from doing his Father's will, nor should we from doing his will.

If we're true Christians, our commitment to ordering our lives according to the will of God will be no less. Of course, it takes the Holy Spirit to enable us to do that. Well if his courage and commitment is on display in verses 32 and 33, certainly our Lord's compassion is set forth in verse 34.

For then he exclaimed, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing.

We see the heart of the Lord Jesus for his people laid open before his hearers. He was moved with compassion as well as a sense of urgency. He knew the wrath of God was coming upon his people. His whole life and ministry had been motivated by the best interests of his people, how ready and willing he was, and we can assume his father is, to gather his people so that they would experience his nurture and protection.

God is a loving God, even toward his enemies. We see here the willingness of God to show compassion, to have mercy on his people. As we can read elsewhere, for you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you.

God is a loving God. In Psalm 103, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. Thank God. Here Jesus denounced Jerusalem with the two words, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Now, here Jesus uses the name of the city, Jerusalem, to describe and depict the Jewish people while under the Mosaic Covenant.

Jerusalem is personified. Oh, he's speaking to Jerusalem as though it were a person, as though it were a single entity. Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, as a rebel against God. Really, from the day that God had constituted the Jewish people on Mount Sinai as a nation of Israel, God had been good and merciful and gracious to his people, and this was true even while they responded in self-willed obstinance, rebellion, and defection from him and his ways.

In fact, the entire history of the Jewish nation warranted God's wrath to be justly administered to them. And here Jesus identifies himself as God who had desired through history to gather his people in order to protect and provide for them as a mother hen brooding over her chicks, but they had refused to be summoned and submitted to him.

And again, this was demonstrated throughout history as they rejected and killed all the prophets that had been sent to them with overtures of mercy and messages of impending judgment due to their impenitence.

But notice where the problem lie. God was desirous to show them mercy, but Jesus declared, but you were not willing. Jesus was saying, I would, but you would not. Even in the beginning of the nation, after God had given his people his laws and they had gone on record committing themselves to do everything that God had commanded them, and since that day, they had defected and departed from God continuously.

And even on that day when they committed themselves to order their life, their national life, according to the Ten Commandments, he declared to them on their commitment, oh, that they had a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep my commandments that it might be well with them and with their children forever.

The old covenant did not provide a new heart for them. It provided the laws for them to, by which they were to be governed, but it gave them no heart, no desire and ability to do so. And so their entire history was one of rebellion and warranted the wrath of God.

And Jesus was now announcing the arrival of God's judgment upon Jerusalem, that is, upon the collective Jewish nation. They had rejected God's gracious overtures. They had killed the prophets whom he had sent to warn them and even offer them terms of peace, but they were unwilling.

Now, it's very unfortunate that those who hold to Arminian doctrine, that is, those who insist that people are saved by their own free will, they take these words of our Lord to argue that God is unwilling to violate the free will of man to choose him.

He makes the offer and then stands back. You are not willing. In other words, God offers salvation freely but leaves it up to follow the man of his own free will to accept his offered salvation. This reveals ignorance and error regarding the nature and degree of man's sinfulness.

These verses did not support their aberrant doctrine, but rather these verses refute it. These verses show forth the need for the sovereignty of God to intervene and impart a new heart to his people. Otherwise, they would never be willing to come to him in faith and repentance.

You can offer Christ all day long to the world. All of them would be unwilling unless God does a work of grace in that heart. Yes, only people who are willing to come to him receive salvation, but the only sinners who will desire to come to him for salvation are those in whom the Lord has imparted a new heart and regeneration.

In other words, God makes his people willing in the day of his power. And you and I, many of us, can testify to the fact that we who came to Christ later than childhood, that we were most rebellious, most defiant, and most unlikely to come to Christ, but God overcame us by the power of his grace, the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so it is, the fallen nature of man renders him without the desire or willingness to turn from sin and submit to God as his God. We're sinners. The offer to come to Jesus Christ for salvation is the promise of the gospel to the world, and we offer that sincerely.

Any and all who are extended the general call or invitation to come to God through faith in Christ so that they may receive life that's in him, we offer that gospel freely. But sadly, due to sin, mankind is both unable and unwilling to come unto him.

As Jesus said of certain Jewish religious leaders, he could say to all, you will not come to me that you might have life. That wasn't just them, that's all of us. As the word of God stresses repeatedly, sin has rendered man woefully ignorant, blatantly stubborn to respond to God's general call to salvation.

Man is a sinner in his whole being. His mind has been darkened, his will is perverse, his soul is owned and directed by the devil. Because he's a sinner, a fallen human being needs more than just an offer of grace for salvation.

He needs a work of grace performed in him if he's going to come to Christ. The Lord Jesus affirmed this in so many places. We have his words recorded in John 6 .65. Jesus said, no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my father.

Now, in Luke 13, it says you're unwilling. In John 6 .65, it says you're unable. And so God the Father has to do it. And Jesus said in another place, no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me.

Draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6 .44. And this drawing of the Father is nothing less than the effectual call to salvation that he extends to a chosen people so they would come to salvation.

And if you're in Christ, it's because the Father taught you and drew you. This work of grace in the mind and the heart of the individual destined for salvation overcomes those forces that bind him in sin.

And so the word of God clearly teaches that if anyone is delivered from the deserved wrath of God's judgment, it's God's mercy and grace that we thank. But if he refuses that mercy and grace, he has only himself to blame.

The emphasis of our Lord's words here in Luke 13, 34, and 35 is that people are guilty because they refuse to come to Christ in whom alone there is protection from God's wrath upon sin. God is kind and merciful and offers people to come unto him, but because of sin, they don't.

We will not have this man rule over us, was the protest of the Jews. It takes a work of grace in the heart, and it's sovereign grace. God has to take the initiative, he has to do the work, or it's not going to happen.

But if our Lord's courage is revealed in verse 32 and his commitment is displayed in verses 33, and our Lord's compassion sent forth in verse 34, then certainly our Lord's condemnation, his word of condemnation, is expressed in verse 35.

Jesus exclaimed, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets, stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing, and he declares their desolation.

It's an amazing statement. We have the Lord in the role of a judge pronouncing Jerusalem's desolation, and this was fulfilled in A .D. 70, when the Roman armies under Titus, the Roman general, successfully laid siege to the city, captured it, slayed most of its occupants, and led the few remaining Jews into captivity.

And there's the Arch of Titus today standing in Rome just across the street from the Colosseum, where you see the relief of Titus bringing in the refugees from Jerusalem with the candelabra in front of the procession, Titus marching these defeated Jews into Rome.

For those of you that are interested in prophecy, here's a matter for you to consider. You can read a lot of speculation about future events that are going to transpire in Jerusalem. They're on YouTube all over the place.

You can read much about the abomination of desolation, which was written about by Daniel the prophet, but as far as Luke's gospel is concerned, the abomination that made desolate was fulfilled in A .D. 70, and later we'll read in Luke 21, and we'll get into some detail when we get there someday, our words of Jesus.

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies and know its desolation, here's the word abomination of desolation, know its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and the Jewish Christians did that.

Let those who are in the midst of her depart, let not those who are in the country enter her, for these are the day of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Zechariah 14, verse 1 and following, we read about it.

But woe to those who are pregnant, to those who are nursing babies in those days, for there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people, and they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

And so the abomination was a Jewish rejection of their Messiah, their king. It led to the desolation of Jerusalem and its temple, for in rejecting him, God abandoned them. And as the spirit left the temple in Old Testament time, signaling the invasion and destruction of Jerusalem in the days of Babylon, so the rejection of Jesus, the Messiah, signaled the abandonment of Jerusalem by God, turning it over to suffer the wrath of God at the hands of the Roman armies.

Paul alluded to this in one of the epistles to the church, to his church, to church at Thessalonica. For you, brethren, he's talking to Gentile Christians here, became imitators of the churches of God which were in Judea and Christ Jesus, for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they, Jewish Christians, did from the Judeans, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us.

They do not please God. They're contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved. So all as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But here it is. But the wrath is now has come upon them to the uttermost.

Now, this was probably 10, 15 years before the fall of Jerusalem, but 10 years perhaps. But Paul was announcing that the wrath of God was upon them. For they rejected the Lord Jesus, their king. But here in Luke 13, 34, 35, our Lord is pressing that time was short.

Judgment was upon them, but they were unaware of the peril they were in. The last statement of verse 35 may or may not be a basis of hope. Assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see me until the time comes when you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Some see these words as a promise holding forth the possibility of an end time conversion of the Jewish nation. I hope there will be. Based on Romans 11, it can be shown that it probably is so. But others, however, see verse 35 is simply a worded form of pronouncement of God's judgment upon the land.

Basically, he was saying, you've rejected me now, but there will be a day when you see me coming again. And even you will acknowledge I'm the Messiah. But then it will be too late. That's how some understand that.

Well, that's basically the details of the passage. And so we've completed our introduction. And we want to come to the theme that is really laid out before us here in these verses. And that is Jesus Christ as God's prophet.