Book of Luke - Ch. 10, Vs. 22-24 (08/24/2003)

Let's turn to Luke chapter 10 this afternoon and I am going to save the story of the

Good Samaritan for Brother Otis next week because I like to hear him teach that part.

I like his definition of a neighbor. So I'm going to, I might backtrack one of the verses.

I think we might have discussed this one. So I'm probably supposed to start with about verse 23, but I'm going to start with 22 this afternoon because it goes with the rest of it.

So let's start with Luke chapter 10 verse 22. We'll pray together. Father, we thank you for the marvelous truths of the gospel that we got to explore this morning and last

Sunday and Sunday before last and how so much of that is implied in the few words that Jesus said to Nicodemus.

There's so much behind every word in that passage as is true all of your word we know, but we thank you for the truths that you reveal to us as we study together.

We ask you to do that for us again this afternoon in Jesus name, amen.

Luke chapter 10 verse 22, all things are delivered to me of my father and no man knoweth who the son is, but the father and who the father is, but the son and he to whom the son will reveal him.

Now, if you really think about that verse, it bears out everything that we talked about in the morning service this morning about the fact that salvation has to be of God.

It cannot start with man. It cannot really have a part in man until God gives it as a gift.

Now, I want to look at this word delivered and then we'll come back and read the phrase that's in that verse again.

This word delivered is para did omei and as so many

Greek words, it's at least two little words put together and so much like math, but it starts with the word para and you can hear that when you say the word, but the word para means above.

It can mean up, but generally it means above. And then the last part of the word is did omei and it means to give.

It literally means to give power over, to place the control in a person's hand.

And so we can see that this is what the father did to Jesus Christ.

He delivered up the power of all things.

Now think about that. It's amazing. And this is

Jesus, the man on the earth still saying this.

So he has been made aware of this in his life growing up from a little boy up to the time of his ministry.

The Holy Spirit has made him very aware of who he is. And he says, all things are delivered up to me.

Or you could say it this way. The father has delivered up power over all things unto me.

Now, after that phrase, he says, no man knows who the son is.

Now, this one to whom all power has been given may not be known by man.

No one knows who this is except one, and that's the father.

So that certainly proves that the scriptures that say that no man come to the son except the father draw him, it bears that verse out.

It's a parallel verse with that verse. The father is the only one who knows.

Now listen, look what it says. It doesn't say who knows the son. It says who knows who the son is.

We wouldn't know if it were Buddha. We wouldn't know if it was Muhammad. We wouldn't know who the son is.

Is it Jesus? Only the father knows who he is. Now it goes on next, though, and it says this.

No one knows who the father is but the son. And any other person to whom the son will reveal him.

Now I want you to look at the cycle that this creates. If you start at the end of this verse and go backwards, it becomes obvious that you cannot know the father.

You cannot know God unless Jesus Christ reveals him to you.

He is the revealer. He is called the word of God. That means he's the expression of God to man.

You cannot know the father except by Jesus. But as you move back towards the first of the verse, you cannot know

Jesus unless the father draws you to him. So God simply does not allow man to know him unless man has been chosen or elected.

And I really like it saying it this way better, unless that person were his from the beginning.

He is not able to know God at all because the only way you can know God is if Jesus reveals him to you.

But you can't know Jesus and have a relationship with him to learn anything from him unless the father draws you to him.

So the father draws you to the one who's going to reveal him to you. All in that one verse explains salvation pretty well in that verse.

Now, when it says that, and no man knoweth who the son is but the father.

It's interesting, this word to know. No man knoweth who the son is but the father is gnosko.

And it means to be taking in knowledge. To come to know, to recognize, to understand completely.

It really takes the connotation of understanding with complete knowledge. So no one, there's no human, there's no being other than the father.

In other words, let's put it this way, other beings besides him cannot take in knowledge.

So this word gnosko, where it says knoweth his son, it means a man, a natural man living around us cannot even take in knowledge about the son on his own.

He cannot come to know the son. He cannot recognize nor, and certainly cannot understand completely.

Only the father can do that. That's what the word know means when it says no man knoweth the son, who the son is, but only the father.

No one knows who the father is but the son, and he to whom the son reveal him. Let's look at this word reveal.

This is a nifty word. It's actually the same word that if you look at the book of Revelation, in the

Greek, it's this word, the apocalypse, is what it's called. In some of the old Bibles, has anybody seen a

Bible where it's not called Revelations, it's called the apocalypse? There are some old Bibles that call it that.

Comes from this Greek word apokalupto. It means to take the cover off.

No one knows who the father is but the son and the person to whom the son takes the covering away and allows him to see the father.

Isn't that amazing? Does that cause our hearts to rejoice and want to praise

God that we are such people, that he has made it to be so that the covering...

Do you remember the veil in the Old Testament when Moses went up on the mount and saw God and came back down, his face was shining, so they put a veil over him?

That's used later in the New Testament as a symbol of the fact that the Jew's heart was so hardened that he couldn't see because the veil hadn't been removed yet.

But when the Jew in the New Testament received Jesus as his Messiah, it was as if the veil were lifted.

And it's a picture of this taking off the cover. These Jewish people like Nicodemus, at the moment

Nicodemus was talking to Jesus in earth time, he was not saved yet. Now, we kind of sense that he was elect and that he got saved later, but he was not saved yet and the veil had not been lifted.

The apocalyptic had not occurred for him. He was still blinded.

There was a covering where his eyes just couldn't see and he was a very religious man. And all of a sudden,

Jesus, we hope at some point in the life of Nicodemus, and we believe at some point that he took this covering off and he no longer had to ask, well, how would

I go back in my mother's womb and be born? You know, he didn't have to think that way anymore.

He could see what it meant to be born again. So that's what the word reveal means.

John 5, 19 says, then answered Jesus and said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, the

Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the

Father do. For what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the

Son likewise. Oh, that's an amazing verse.

Verse 23 says, and now I'm back in Luke chapter 10, think about this.

And he turned him unto his disciples and said privately, didn't let the others hear.

Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see.

Blessed is kind of a poetic Greek word, which means supremely blessed.

So you could translate it this way, supremely blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see, is what

Jesus told them. The eyes which see is from the Greek word blepo, and it speaks of just pure bodily vision, pure outward sense with a single look of the eye.

But look at verse 24 there in Luke chapter 10, 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 you hear and have not heard them.

Where it says kings have desired to see, this is not the same word for see as we studied in verse 23, that was blepo, which means physical sight.

But this word see is eido in the Greek, which means to see with knowledge, or to become aware of something.

So he says that these kings and prophets desired to see with knowledge things that these disciples were now seeing at the feet of Jesus, but they could not see it, and they have not seen them.

And they desired to hear these words, but they couldn't understand them. John 646 says, not that any man hath seen the

Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. And John 838,

I speak that which I have seen with my father. And you do that which you have seen with your father.

He was talking to a Pharisee, he later said, your father is the devil. So, the spiritual sight and the spiritual ability to hear can only come to us from Jesus, who is the only one who knows the

Father. So in order for any human being to know God, the true God, the true

God must draw them to Jesus, who then reveals himself to the person. It is

Jesus who is the only one who has seen the Father. He is the only one who says,

I only speak that which I hear the Father speak. He's the only one that directly can see and hear the

Father. Therefore, we could never know the Father if Jesus didn't come to us and bring a revelation and take the covering off of our eyes so that we can truly see the

Father. Well, that's some deep stuff. You could take those verses and spend some time under the tree in the backyard contemplating those things about Jesus being in the very presence of the

Father and telling these people he was walking with. Imagine he's walking with you right there, talking to you on this earth, saying

I'm the only man that's ever been in the presence of the Father. I have seen the

Father. I have heard his words, and the words that I speak, they are his words. I say only that which

I've heard the Father say. He is the great revealer, the apocalyptic.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for drawing us to your son

Jesus and causing us to not only not be ashamed of him any longer, but to love him and desire him, and Lord, we thank you for revealing to us the

Father's heart, the Father's mind on so many issues as we study your word.

Thank you that we know that as long as we're on this earth still, you will continue to teach us both new things and old as we study the word.

We thank you for this. We ask you to go with us to our homes today, give us safety of travel.

Thank you for the sweet fellowship we have in this church. Thank you for the young people that you've brought our way today as visitors and those who will probably be among us now for some days as they've come to us to work here and hopefully to serve in this local church.

And Father, we pray that as there are others out in this community that have a heart to study the word, that you would draw them to us and help us to find them, that we may do your will in that area as well of being a good witness, go with us, we know we are a witness everywhere we go, help us to listen to others and to care about their needs and to listen to you and so that we might know who to minister to and we ask it in Jesus name, amen.