The Transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36)

28

And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.

29

And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.

30

And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias:

31

Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.

32

 But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him.

33

And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said.

34

While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud.

35

And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.

36

And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen.

After the great miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 Jesus did some very serious teaching to His disciples. He first asked them pointed questions about His own identity, as far as people around were concerned. They began to say, “Some think you are Moses. Some think you are Elijah. Some think you are somebody else.” And He said, “Whom do you say that I am?” And we have that great confession of the apostle Peter that is written in such detail in the gospel of Matthew: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus commending him for that because He said, “Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto you. This was not something you figured out within yourself, but this came as a divine revelation from the Father.” And then on the heels of that great revelation and confession, Jesus also made a tremendous confession. The first of the so-called ‘Passion Predictions’ where Jesus said He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed and rise the third day. Three days He had to tell His disciples this and they still did not really believe Him or understand Him or comprehend Him fully on His mission at that point. He went on to teach them when they began to say, “No, that’s not what needs to be done,” and He said, “You, too, must deny yourself and take up your cross.”
 
In all that great interlude there where He teaches the disciples so many great lessons, it sets up what I want to talk about tonight in a special way. At a time when the disciples may be wondering what the future holds, at a time when Jesus Himself is giving forth the information that the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed. At a time like that, there is a great need for a divine demonstration and revelation of God’s perfect will in His life and in the life of the disciples. I think it comes at a very strategic moment in His ministry and in the lives of the disciples – this great event of the transfiguration. Jesus calls three men to go with Him into the mountain to pray. It is marvelous what happens when anybody prays. You can always expect the entrance to the supernatural when you go before God in prayer. Sometimes we start to pray almost routinely, not realizing that we are about to open the door into the divine and the supernatural and God is about ready to bring divine revelation and visitation upon us. But when Jesus prayed, it seemed to be far beyond anything that we could imagine because He had such a close, intimate relationship with the Father. As He prayed, He underwent a supernatural transformation. This is a marvelous thing. Supernatural visitation often comes in the time of prayer. Supernatural transformation often takes place in the time of prayer. Supernatural revelation often comes in the time of prayer. Why don’t you testify with me tonight? How many of you have had these kinds of experiences in the time of prayer? Would you just testify and say Amen. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Thank God for the anointing of the Holy Spirit in this place tonight. Oh, hallelujah!
 
It is a marvelous thing when you come before Him and all of a sudden you are praying beyond even your intentions. You are praying beyond yourself and beyond your knowledge. Suddenly, there is tremendous manifestation of His glorious presence and power. This is what happens. As He prays, suddenly He is transformed and changed. The Greek term that is used here literally means metamorphosis. Suddenly, he is undergoing a supernatural kind of change. His countenance is altered. It is like the bright sunshine in its full strength. His raiment is suddenly white and glistening because of the Shekinah, the glory of God  has come down and enveloped Him. Here we see this tremendous transformation that would blind anyone’s eyes if you would look upon this scene of the brightness of the glory of God. I think one of the greatest studies in the entire Bible is this whole concept of the glory of God. I don’t think we quite know how to appreciate the glory of God when it comes in this great power. It is so seldom that we have witness to it. We see a moving of the Spirit, we are aware of the Holy presence. We are aware of the power in the Word of God. We are aware of the healing presence of the Lord. I’m talking about the kind of glory that would strike you down and you would fall on your face like every person who ever saw it. Like Isaiah in the temple, like Ezekiel again and again, like Saul on the road to Damascus and so many others who have been in the glory like John on the Isle of Patmos.
 
I remember years ago in a Camp Meeting in Louisiana, there was a young man playing the organ and singing. He said, “Oh, I just felt the Shekinah glory of God.” No such thing! If he had, he probably would have been knocked off that organ bench about 30’ and he would have been on his face. Not the Shekinah glory. He felt the moving of the Spirit, no doubt about that. But we’re talking about the glory of God descending upon Jesus Christ. The reason for it was He was about to have a divine conversation with some supernatural people who were coming to call upon Him. Because suddenly, there appeared with Him in this glory Moses and Elijah. We know them well. We know they have long gone on to glory, Elijah just being caught up like raptured and caught away, Moses dying and going on. This gives us some special insight into what it’s like on the other side when people leave this world and go into the presence of God. You say Elijah didn’t die. Well let me tell you this. You don’t get out of this world and in the presence of the supernatural glory of God without being changed from mortality. It would be like a star falling through space and just be burned up. You have to be clothes upon with supernatural power even to be in that kind of glory.
 
So here is Moses and Elijah. If you’ll allow me to run wild with my imagination a little bit, it may have been that on this day that Elijah went by and said, “Moses, would you like to take a little ride in my chariot?” You know Elijah liked chariots of fire! “You never got over to the promised land. Would you like to go down there today and just take a look around?” and Moses said “Yeah, I’d like to go with you,” and away they went. Suddenly they appeared, Moses finally made it to the promised land. Isn’t that wonderful? And they started talking to Jesus. Luke is the only gospel writer who gives us an inside track on understanding what they talked about. Let’s look at this divine conversation for a minute. They spake of His decease that He should accomplish in Jerusalem. I want you to mark that word ‘decease’. In the NIV, I think it reads His departure. That gets closer to the meaning. It really comes from the word ‘exodun’ from which we get the word ‘exodus’ and what they are going to talk about is the exodus that Jesus is going to accomplish at Jerusalem. They are going to discuss His death, burial, resurrection and departure out of this world – His ascension. They are going to talk about the whole thing. They just discussed every aspect of the whole redemption plan. They would compare it, no doubt. Moses would be able, especially, to compare it to that first exodus and the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt and all the miracles and all the things that took place and the blood of the lambs sprinkled. You could almost hear Moses outlining things and encouraging Jesus and saying “We understood all about this redemption from way back there.” Elijah could say “Yes, and we prophesied and we talked about these things.” And here the law and the prophets in the person of Moses and Elijah talking about all that had been promised and all that had been prophesied and all that they look forward to. So they discussed it and said “Now you must go on. You must accomplish this redemption. We have looked forward to it in faith and now the provision has been made from eternity and now it must be fulfilled because You must go.” And so it was in a kind of perhaps encouragement for our Lord that they talked to Him and they spoke about it. His death, His resurrection, His ascension. “Just think, Jesus, what all you will accomplish when You shed Your blood. No more sheep and lambs and bulls and nothing like that ever to be shed again. As a matter of fact, when You shed Your blood and You give up the ghost, the whole system of the Jewish system and the temple is going to go out of business because the Lord is going to rip open the veil and that will be the last time any priest will need to go in behind that veil to offer up the blood of lambs or whatever for the sins of this world.” They could say to Him, “And You will conquer death and all the saints that have gone on before who are now awaiting the call, they will hear Your voice. Because when You rise from the dead, the saints will rise with You. Some of them will walk around Jerusalem awhile and be seen of people in Jerusalem.”
 
I don’t know what all they said. I’m asking permission tonight to just sort of use my imagination, but they discussed it – His exodus, His departure. They could speak of His ascension. Just wait til You ascend. Elijah could say “Yeah, I know what that’s like. Walking along all of a sudden and then whoosh! A chariot of fire comes sweeping down and just picks you up and off you go! I know what that’s like.” So they talked and they spoke of His exodus, His decease, His departure and all that it would accomplish in Jerusalem.
 
Well about that time these three disciples really got their eyes open from sleep. They gave witness to His glory. Now this would be some encouragement to the disciples because Jesus had just told them the Son of Man must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things and He would be killed and their hearts are heavy. Now they see Him as the glorified Messiah, what He would look like. I know the Scripture tells us that eye hath not seen and ear hath not heard what God has prepared for them that love Him. But, it says it has been revealed to us by His Spirit. Every now and then the Lord reaches down and He turns the wick up high and lets the glory shine forth and the grace of God revealed to us something of what the future is. Even Paul would say that receiving the Holy Spirit itself is the absolute guarantee of what is to come. In Ephesians when he uses all those great words in that first chapter that talks about adoption, redemption, being selected and chosen, all those adoptive terms, accepted in the beloved, then given an inheritance, coming into an inheritance, then talking about receiving the Holy Spirit of promise and he says “This is the down payment, the guarantee, the earnest (like earnest money), this is the guarantee, the down payment of your inheritance.” If you want to know what your full inheritance is like, think about what the baptism of the Holy Ghost is like in this present world and that is a foretaste and guarantee of what is yet to come. Hallelujah! That’s the reason people need to be filled with the Spirit because they go around all the time witnessing what their future is and what their inheritance is and what it is like. Oh, praise God! One touch of the Holy Spirit can do more for you in just a minute or two than a lot of figuring and working can do for you in days and days.
 
Do you ever have doubts about the future or your inheritance or who you are? Just worship God until there is a freedom of the Holy Spirit to work in your life and I tell you it won’t be long until the doubts will be gone. What a picture of what God’s future is like! What the glory is like!
 
These disciples may have some trials and some troubles, and even some failures after this. But one day, John would write and say, “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We have handled it with our hands. We have seen it with our eyes. We know about Him and we have seen His glory.” Yes, they saw it on the mount of transfiguration. They got their eyes open. They saw His glory. They saw the two men. Simon Peter just got beside himself. He often did that like a lot of other people. But then, a cloud came over them. A cloud of the glorious presence of the Almighty. The Lord God Almighty says “I will visit this scene.” And He has to be covered with a cloud because He cannot shine forth the fullness of His glory in the face of these disciples. Here’s one of those great paradoxes of Scripture and of our spiritual pilgrimage, and that is sometimes God has to shroud us almost in darkness to be able to communicate with us with the revelation He wants us to receive.
 
It hit me in a new way thinking about this cloud overshadowing this group. Then out of the cloud comes a voice that says “This is my beloved Son. Hear Him.” It is no time for wild speculation. It is no time for wild imagination, Simon Peter. It is no time to jump the gun with suggestions. It is a time to be enfolded in the cloud of God’s glory and hear His voice because you are in the presence of divinity, supernatural power. Hallelujah! There is no time in your life as solemn as when you know you are in His presence. There is no time in your life when you feel the holiness of God anymore than when you are shrouded in His divine presence. Glory to Jesus.
 
This is my beloved Son. Divine affirmation. Jesus received it a number of times at the baptism with John when He was obedient in the example He was setting and identifying with what was going on and what God was doing in this world and the heavens were opened and the voice spoke and the heavenly dove came down resting upon Jesus and anointing Him. Here on the mount of transfiguration, here is that voice speaking again in affirmation and saying “Hear Him. Hear Him. Pay attention to what He is saying. Don’t pay any attention to the suggestions of anybody else who doesn’t really know what He is talking about.” And then it came again toward the end of His ministry. John records it in chapter 12. When Jesus prayed and said “Father, the hour is come that the Son of Man may be glorified.” And what will I say? Save me from this hour? And the obvious answer is “No, it is for this hour came forth I into the world.” And then the voice of divine affirmation came. “This is my beloved Son.” Some people just thought an angel may have spoken. Some thought it thundered. You see, some people are totally out of tune and out of touch with the presence of God and with the voice of God when He speaks. Oh, hallelujah!
 
But I am thankful for people who live in harmony with the Word of God and who live in harmony with the Holy Spirit and they understand the Father’s voice when He speaks words of affirmation and revelation and instruction. So the cloud overshadowed them and out of the cloud came the divine voice.
 
What does this story mean to us? I think it means much the same as it means to Jesus, but in particular, His disciples. It means to us a wonderful word of encouragement that even in the midst of setting His face toward Jerusalem knowing that He is going to be arrested and mistreated and He will suffer many things. Yet He goes in triumph and in victory and in power, knowing that the glory that is beyond it that shall be revealed is so far superior to any suffering that He may have to bear in this world until He does it gladly and voluntarily. I think it would encourage the disciples in the same way and Simon Peter would finally learn that lesson well because if you read his first letter and you analyze it around the word suffering, pasko – to suffer. He mentions it 14 times. Seven times in reference to the sufferings of Christ, and seven times in reference to the sufferings of Christians. He identifies with what Jesus has told them before this transfiguration. Some of those sufferings would be voluntary and would show an example. Some would be vicarious in behalf of others and would be redemptive. But some of these sufferings would be victorious and triumphant! Hallelujah!  They are learning that lesson now when the voice speaks and says “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him.” So solemn, so sacred was that event that when the cloud lifted, they saw Jesus standing alone. Elijah had gone. Moses had gone. The cloud had gone. It was so solemn and so glorious the Bible says in verse 36 “…they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen.” So solemn, so sacred until they couldn’t go running and spreading it at that time. That would be for another time.
 
What does the transfiguration mean to us? It means a display of supernatural power and glory that gives us insight into the world of God’s glory and what it’s like on the other side. It gives us words of encouragement that even though we go through suffering, when we do it in the name of the Lord for His glory, then the glory comes. It is a word of encouragement that sometimes God brings His cloud over us in order to speak to us and bring to us revelation. They will need it because they will go from this event down in the valley where there is struggle and there is demonic activity that they will face and they will need the remembrance of the height of glory on the mount of transfiguration.
 
I want to tell you that God comes to our lives right where we are and gives us an insight into His glorious supernatural power that whatever valley we may go into afterward, we can know full well that He, in His Almighty power and glory, is with us and we need not fear.

The Touch of Faith (Luke 8:43-48)

43

And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,

44

Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.

45

And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

46

 And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.

47

And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.

48

And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. 
We mentioned the other night that here are back-to-back four great miracles of Jesus: one great miracle in the realm of nature, stilling the storm; a great miracle in the realm of demonic supernatural power, the deliverance of the man who was demon possessed. Tonight we are going to talk about a great miracle in the realm of the physical when we talk about the healing of a woman with an issue of blood. And then the other miracle is the raising of a young girl of 12 years old from the dead; power and miracles in the realm of disease and death. The story of the woman with the issue of blood is one of my favorite stories to preach and talk about. This woman’s story is so down-to-earth and she is so human, and we can identify with her in her suffering and in her trial, and the idea of the steps that she took in order to receive help from Jesus Christ. Out of the particular lessons that we learned, we ought to find a way to – like this woman – put forth an effort to reach out by faith and touch Jesus for our own particular needs. There are sometimes when God pours forth His Spirit and His love and His grace upon us and we don’t even seem to ask, we don’t even seem to have to believe. It just seems to be spontaneous and it seems like out of the goodness of His heart and His great mercy He just dumps upon us great showers of blessings and love. There are other things that take a little more time and a little bit of effort and the exercising of more faith, and requires that we reach out to Him sometimes even in desperation to receive what we need from Him. So, that’s what we want to talk about tonight; just reaching out with the touch of faith.
 
I want to underscore some words in your thinking that will serve as an outline for us to follow for this message. I’m going to pick one or two words from Mark’s account of this story, as well. The words that I want to zero in on, especially for all you teachers, and especially that honored group who teach English, I’m going to choose special verbs; action words that happen to this woman part of her life as she took steps to receive help from God. That will form the outline that I want to talk about tonight.
 
This story is so very realistic. It is so human. We look upon it and upon this woman in a very special way and we can understand a little bit about her suffering and what she was going through with. The Bible says that she had been sick for twelve long years with an issue, a flow of blood that could not be stopped. So she suffered physical pain. She was drawn over, giving in somewhat to the pain that she bore in her body. She suffered emotionally, as well, and psychologically because in the situation then, the Jewish environment where she lived, she was considered unclean and she could not come into an assembly like this tonight. She couldn’t come into a group of people. She had to keep her distance as a person who was considered unclean. This might not have been so bad if it had been a few months, but twelve long years being separated from everybody had caused her a great amount of internal suffering and turmoil and it was hard for her to handle. Loneliness bore down upon her day after day. I don’t know if you have really suffered loneliness, but I think that is one of the greatest pains that anyone can ever suffer is to be separated and not being able to go about a natural, normal routine of life, associating with friends and loved ones and going out in public places, always having to keep your distance, to stay alone.
 
But, one day she heard about Jesus. That’s the first word I want you to underline – she heard. We don’t know who it was, but she had some special friend. It could have been her sister. It could have been some lady neighbor who loved her. But she had a friend who did not mind going to her little house and visiting with her and spending some time with her. Whoever it was, she went to see her. Evidently, she went to see her often. Probably when she went, she was almost like her eyes seeing for the woman and a life of emotion that felt for the woman. She came and reported because she had been going to hear Jesus. She had been going to see Jesus and she evidently came and told this woman, her friend, about Jesus. She told her about what He taught, what He said, no doubt. She may have said, “I heard Him speak and I heard Him teach this or that. I saw Him with my own eyes as He healed people. I saw Him heal people who are as bad off as you are, some maybe worse. I have seen Him in control of evil forces.” And we don’t know what all, but she just kept on telling the woman about Jesus. In my estimation, there is no greater preaching in all the world than for a person out of love to go to somebody who is hurting and lonely and keep telling them about the love of Jesus Christ. I know we preachers sometimes like to think about great sermons and we are thrilled when people say they enjoy our message and all that. But as far as the Lord is concerned, I think the greatest preaching of all is when anybody shares with someone who is needing help and they keep telling them about Jesus and what He has said, what He has done, what he can do, and they keep sowing the seed of love in the hearts of people so that it grows faith. It produces faith. That is exactly what happened to this woman. Hearing about Jesus, there came a day when she got the courage to make one last effort to get some help because she had spent every dime she owned. She had gone to physicians. She had an incurable kind of disease. Nobody could help her. The Bible says “But rather she grew worse,” Mark said.
 
I guess by this time she is absolutely desperate and so she came with this one last effort, using all her strength. She came. That’s the word I want you to underline…She came. The fact is that one day she made a decision and she said, “This is the day I’m going,” and the Bible says she came to Jesus. Now that lets me know that there are some things that we face in our lives and problems that we have that one day we have to make a decision about and say ‘This is the day that I’m going to get up on my feet and though I don’t have much energy and though I don’t have much faith, yet this is the day that I go to do something about what is my trouble.’ Amen!
 
I want to tell you, God honors that. When you make up your mind and you make a decision and even though you may not have much faith at the time, when you start to put one foot ahead of the other one in the direction of the Lord Jesus Christ, He honors it. Praise God! He honors it. So there was a day when she came to Jesus. The only problem was He was not on the hillside teaching as usual. When she caught up with the crowd, they were moving. It turned out to be the wrong day. The first thing she saw with Jesus was this well dressed religious man who was the ruler of the synagogue, Jairus, and Jesus was on His way to his house to see something about his daughter who was at the point of death and indeed would die. I suppose the woman’s heart sank because she thought perhaps in her heart “I can’t go up and see Him. I can’t cry out to Jesus. I must not make a scene. If Jairus sees me, he is the person who tells me I’m unclean and I can’t attend the synagogue or I can’t go. He is the one who rules. And he stands between me and Jesus Christ.” It would be a tremendous thing if we understood the people who have allowed personalities to stand between them and the blessings of the Lord. There is seldom anything else, but so many people have been hindered because of personalities who seem to stand between them and the Lord.
 
Mark adds a word here that I want to add here: another one of those verbs, She said. Some people don’t believe much in positive confession and I know that there are some who seem to be ridiculous. But here is a case that absolutely the Bible presents in a beautiful manner that brings about understanding of what kind of positive confession based on faith that really works in your own heart. She said, “If I can just touch His clothes, I’m not going to touch Him. I’m not going to make a scene. I’m not going to cry out. I’m just going to slip right in from behind and if I can just touch His clothes, I will be healed.” Hallelujah!
 
Now, I don’t pretend to understand that kind of faith. She is way ahead of me as far as understanding real faith that reaches out with a touch of Jesus Christ. But at the same time, there is fear and there is worry and anxiety working in her heart because she intends to stay hid as we read earlier. She does not have to have the center of attention. She does not want to be brought out into the open. So she slips in from behind and says “If I can just touch His clothes, the border of His garment, I will be made whole.”
 
That’s exactly what she did. That’s the next word: She touched. She worked her way through the great press of people and with her last ounce of energy seemed to reach forward through the crowd and touched the border of His garment. Mark says immediately felt in her body that she was healed! I like that! Oh, hallelujah! I love healing that you feel right away. You don’t have to go on your way and have somebody say “Now just keep saying it and after a while it will come.” I like healing that you can feel.
 
I liked it back in 1963 when I had had gall bladder attacks for several years. The doctors x-rayed and said I had gallstones and must have surgery. It scared me to death. I went out to my church one Wednesday night and I called the good saints around. I sat down on the altar and I said, “I’ve prayed for you. It’s your time now to pray for me,” and I sat down on the altar. I said, “Somebody get oil and anoint me.” That night as I sat on the altar on a Wednesday night, some of the greatest things in the world happen on Wednesday night at the church, somebody anointed me with oil and somebody laid hands on me at the old West Frankfurt Church of God in southern Illinois and God came down and it was like warm oil flowed down over me. How many of you have ever been healed by the power of God? You know what I’m talking about! Raise your hand as a testimony and as a praise to God. Amen. I got drunk in the Spirit. I felt so light. I felt like my toes were just barely touching the floor and that was in 1963. I never had to have the surgery. I’ve never had a gall bladder attack since. I lived for several years worried to death about if I eat this or if I eat that, worrying about that, but ever since then I’ve never had to worry about what I ate. It’s a marvelous thing to be healed of gall bladder trouble and not worry at all whether anything is going to agree with you or disagree with you and just go right on. That’s a marvelous thing! I never had the surgery and God performed a healing miracle. Someone asked what happened to the gall stones. I don’t know. Nobody has ever looked to see. All I know is I’ve never had that pain again and thank God for it.
 
I like healing that you can feel, that you know that God has touched you and you are aware of the divine presence and you have the witness within. The woman felt in her body that she was healed. My father came home from World War I dying of tuberculosis where he had been gassed in some kind of experiment with poison gas and it developed tuberculosis and 100% disability. They gave him a pension and sent him home to die. God began to talk to him. His family was not Pentecostal at all. He had married a woman, my mother, who was Pentecostal and her family was. God was talking to him about preaching the gospel and he argued and said, “But I can’t. I’m dying. I don’t know how to do that.” He had only gone to the third grade in school. The only thing I’ve ever seen that he wrote was when he scrawled his signature – G. N. May – and you just barely could make it out that it was G. N. May. There on a little screened-in porch separated from the rest of us, he lay night after night. Sometimes my mother would go in in the morning and find his hair and face matted to his pillow in his own blood where he had hemorrhaged even in his sleep. Finally, he told God, “You’ll have to perform a miracle and raise me up because I am dying. If you do, I’ll try it.” And God healed him! Oh hallelujah! He used to tell it like this. “God gave me a new pair of leather lungs and I’m going to wear them out for Him.” And he became one of those screaming, hollering, running, stomping, kicking preachers! I’ve never had half the energy that he had preaching! You couldn’t go to sleep where he preached! He would kick the pew out from under you if you did! (laughter) A lot of folks, hundreds of people are in heaven now already because of him. A lot of preachers are preaching the gospel now because of him. Oh, I love healing that comes to you and saves your life and somehow turns the supernatural anointing of God on in your own heart and life. Amen!
She felt it! She was healed. But she wasn’t the only one who felt it. Jesus felt the healing virtue flow out of Him. That’s what the touch of faith does. Faith is just like turning a switch. When you come to Christ with faith, it pulls that supernatural lever that releases the power of God that flows right out from His life. Oh, hallelujah! My God, I feel His presence tonight. Thank you, God, for healing mercies tonight! Hallelujah! Oh, hallelujah! Thank you, Lord.
 
And Jesus stopped and said, “Who touched my clothes?” Everybody denied it. And then He said, “Who touched me? Somebody touched me.” They said, “Well, Lord, you see this whole bunch in here? Anybody could have bumped up against you and touched you.” But I’m glad that Jesus Christ knows the difference between elbows that just kind of bump around in a crowd and fingers of faith that reach out to touch Him. Some people, that’s the way they live. They just bump around in the crowd. The sit right beside a miracle sometime and never know it. But people who reach out by faith and touch the Lord Jesus Christ, they know what’s going on and they know where the flow of the Spirit and power of the Almighty really is. Hallelujah! Oh, praise His glorious name!
 
So Jesus looked around to see who it was. Here’s the woman. She is trying to stay hid. She does not want to create a scene. She possibly fears what He may say. She possibly fears Jairus. No telling what. But when she saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, fearing and trembling Mark said, and fell down before His feet and told Him all the truth and told Him, “I’m the one.” She told Him why. I know Jesus already knew all about her. She didn’t have to tell Him for His sake. There are a lot of people who are shut away from God’s best because they won’t open up and tell all to Jesus. He already knows, but that doesn’t heal you. That doesn’t bring blessing to you. But the confession, the opening up of your life does. There’s where the therapy comes. There’s where the cleansing and healing come. A lot of people are going around with a lot of things closed in their hearts. It’s just keeping them from enjoying God’s best. Sometimes it’s some old grudge. Sometimes it’s hurt feelings. But any of those old things can just block the flow of God’s love and grace into your heart and life. Like this woman they need to tell all to Him. It’s not necessary that you tell everybody else. Some things you don’t even have to counsel with the pastor. But you need to tell Him everything. Because He already knows, but the opening up of your life and letting His gaze come down into your heart willingly is the thing that will bring you great peace and deliverance.
 
So Jesus spoke to the woman. He spoke some of the most beautiful words that you could ever hear. In the first place, He didn’t say to her, “Woman.” He said that to a few people. But He called her “Daughter.” Do you know what that means? It means that she is in. She is not outside anymore. She is not separated anymore. She is not pushed away at a distance anymore. She is in. She’s in the family. She’s been brought in. She belongs. She’s accepted. What a glorious experience to be accepted in the family of God! I’ve known of people that the Lord accepted that other people wouldn’t accept. I want to tell you when He calls you ‘Son’ or ‘Daughter’ you are in! Thank God, you’re in! Oh, hallelujah! Praise His glorious name!
 
He says to her then a two-fold kind of healing. He said, “Your faith hath made thee whole, so you go in peace.” Can you imagine what it was like to have the turmoil and the burden of confusion and doubt and fear and worry to roll away off her heart, to go in peace. That inward kind of healing where you can say ‘Nothing between my soul and my Savior and I can live my life now in perfect peace.’ Then he took care of the physical plague as well and said, “Be whole of thy plague.”
 
Some folks I know need inward healing and the peace of God. It might take care of part of the physical problems. You just remember here’s one who came into great health because first of all, she received His peace and then she received the physical healing in His pronouncement.
 
Not everybody that we touch receives help. But everybody who touches Him in faith receives help. Everyone that He touches receives help. Reach up to Jesus tonight!

The Test of Goodness (Luke 6:43-49)

43

For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

44

For every tree is known by his own fruit.  For of thorns men do not gather figs, no of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

45

 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

46

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

47

Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:

48

He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.

49

But he that heareth and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built and house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Last time we talked about how to show mercy to people. Not judging or condemning other people and showing mercy to them in different ways and leaving the judging into the hands of God, this passage is the flip side to the portion of scripture we talked about last week.  This has to do with being able to recognize what goodness really is, it is the test for goodness.  Keeping in mind it is not our place to judge or condemn but it is God’s responsibility as the husbandman of the vine to examine unfruitful branches and remove them.  Jesus goes on to say that there are certain characteristics in the lives of people that he refers to as being good.  He uses at least four different illustrations to help us understand what goodness is all about.

First of all he talks about the test of a good tree.  The real test of a good tree is that it bears good fruit, because a corrupt or bad tree does not bear good fruit.  And here is the way you know a good tree, put in very simple terms, it bears good fruit, you do not gather figs from thorn bushes and you do not get grapes from brambles or briars.  It seems the kinds of things that Jesus is talking about here are the kinds of things that grow spontaneously that you must fight them and a special tool to combat these things that would take over your vines.  You get figs from fig trees; you get grapes from good vines.  A person who is in the word of God and abides in Christ is attached to the vine.  Sometimes the husbandman must prune the fruit bearing limb of a tree or a vine so that it may bring forth more fruit in its next season.   I think that in times past in the Church of God we have not helped people to understand the fullness and the richness of being in Christ.  We have taught that you can come to church and get re-filled and it will last you through the week, and we have left the impression that you have to get renewed every week and failed to project the idea of the divine life and force of the power of God’s grace that can come to you every moment of the day and night and supply your life with grace and power while you abide in Jesus Christ.  A good person who is attached to the vine and abides in the word and the power of the spirit and he produces good fruit and he goes on to talk about verse forty five, there is something about this good person that is attached to Lord Jesus.  Here is the test of a good man or woman, he or she has a good heart and out of that heart flows rich treasure, they are the treasures of God’s grace.  Our greatest blessings come to us individually as we give the greatest blessing we give to others.  A good man has a good heart and out of it comes the good things to bless others. A bad person has a bad or corrupt heart and all that comes from their heart is evil and it hurts others and damage to those around him.  A true disciple is anyone who will come to me and hear what he says and does them.  Living and walking with Jesus walking step by step with him.  I have lost count of the times the bible uses the term in Christ and being in Christ, a good disciple is one who comes to Christ and listen and hears what is being said and teachings and doctrines, he hears Jesus words.  A lot of people would like to get a vision of Jesus and the angels and such, but the Lord has made it possible to receive communication from him daily.  Moment by moment, hour by hour, he has written us letters. He has written us messages and he wants to talk to us through his word and the Holy Spirit.  We have a tremendous advantage we have it may be filled with corruption, darkness and evil, but at the same time, we can receive communication and divine direction from heaven. A good disciple hears and listens to what the Lord has to say.  Then when he has heard he practices it and does it.  Ezra in the Old Testament was a ready scribe, he was ready to do God’s work and will, because he had sought the law of the Lord his God to do and teach it.  You seek God and his word, then you put it practice, then you teach it.  If a person does this he is like a good builder that when he starts to build a structure he digs down deep to solid rock, foundation is the key to supporting the building from all the outer forces of nature. It will stand because it is built upon the rock.  A good person builds his life upon the word of God, the foundation and the rock to withstand the storms.  No wonder then they are able to stand the test, they don’t lose their grip on the word no matter what comes against them.  These are troubled and shaky times, but our foundation is strong and we may tremble on the rock, but the rock will never move under our feet and we can stand safe and secure for all time. It doesn’t matter how many people try to discredit the word and do not have any of its teachings to govern their lives. People spend too much time trying to figure out what is wrong in their lives psychologically and it seems everyone is trying to look within.   The best way for us to look within is to first look to Jesus, and let the word reflect what God wants in our lives.  That is where purification comes from and the cleansing of the word of God.  There are times when we don’t know what to do and we turn to the Lord and we are turned to the word and we find immediately the divine will of the Lord.  There is nothing strange or unusual kind of an occurrence to a real Christian, that is the everyday lifestyle of a disciple who has built there life upon the word of God.  There are times when something may have slipped in upon us that we are unaware of and the word of God comes very clear in divine revelation and exposure, to condemn our own hearts and immediately we cry out for the purging and to be sanctified before our High and Holy God.  The test of goodness is to receive life flowing from Jesus Christ that produces the life of a Christian a good tree bearing good fruit, a good person out of his own heart bringing treasures of the richness of God’s grace and sharing it with others.  A disciple who comes to Jesus and follows closely and hears his words and does them, a person who builds his life on the rock Lord Jesus Christ, that is how you determine what goodness really is. 

Dr. May explores the test for goodness.

The Mammon of Unrighteousness (Luke 16:13-17)

13

No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

14

And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.

15

And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

16

The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

17

And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.

I’m going to attempt to speak tonight on a subject I have never spoken on before. When you have something that is totally brand new to you, it can be a challenge to you. It can be exciting or it can be a challenge in a different way. I will be in Chapter 16 tonight. Right away you will recognize the story of the rich man and Lazarus, but there is a good bit that goes on before the rich man and Lazarus. The chapter has to deal mainly with what the Lord calls “The Mammon of Unrighteousness.” Did you ever look at that closely to understand exactly what is the mammon of unrighteousness? I want to talk to you about “The Mammon of Unrighteousness.”
 
In this chapter 16 Jesus talks a good deal about the mammon of unrighteous. He is referring literally to money and possessions. The question really comes in what He is describing here as to whether or not mammon or riches and possessions really possess us and we become enslaved to them, or whether we possess them and they become our servants for us to honor God and to do His will with.
 
What we will see in this chapter are three examples of people who have become enslaved to riches. They are bound by them. They live according to this mammon. They are literally enslaved and they serve mammon. I want us to look at these three tonight. One of them is called an unjust steward. Another example is the Pharisees that I mentioned. And then the third one is the story of the rich man that we’ve heard so much about. I want to look at all three of these because they are tremendous examples of people who have become enslaved to the mammon of unrighteousness. We see the outcome of their lives. We see the judgment that comes upon them because they turn from God, the Creator and the Giver of all things and they worship and serve the things of this world. They are looking at only this world and not the world to come. Christ is coming back to this earth to rule and reign. And all of us gathered here tonight have the hope of leaving everything in this world one day. Leaving everything and going to be with our Lord in heaven forever and ever.
 
I’m not preaching this sermon tonight because I think anybody really needs it. I feel like I am talking to people long ago settled in their own hearts and lives whose servant they are and who is their Master, and it is not this world. It is not the mammon of unrighteousness who is our Master. We have opened up our hearts and our lives and made decisions long ago that the Lord Jesus Christ would be our only Lord and Master. We would not be enslaved to any other or to any other thing.
 
Let’s talk about these three examples. First of all, the unjust steward. Here is a man who wasted the money of his master and literally spent a lot on himself and did all kinds of things and simply wasted his master’s goods. Contrary to the story in chapter 15 of the prodigal son who wasted  his inheritance and came to himself and went back to the father’s house, this story is much the same thing. Here is a man who wasted all the goods of his master, but then we see the philosophy that he operates under. We see what governs him. He is called in by the master to give an account of the way he has managed this business. That’s what a steward is. A steward is someone who manages someone else’s property. That makes me think of a beautiful concept in I Peter 4 where he tells us to be good stewards of the righteousness of God, to be good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Which means that God gives to us the ability, and calls upon us to manage His property, the manifold grace. We have within our power to bring grace to bear upon the lives of people. We have in our prayers and in our worship and in our lives the ability to manage God’s grace and to bring it to bear upon the lives of people as good stewards.
 
Well, here is a steward who is unjust. He had to give an account for the way he had done and the way he had wasted the goods of his master. When his master saw and heard the evidence in the case, he straightway fired him. He said ‘You are not going to be my steward anymore.’ So the man began to think ‘I’m going to be fired. I won’t have a good job. I won’t be able to take in money for myself like I have been doing.’ So he plotted a scheme whereby he could take care of himself. He decided he would go to all the debtors that his master had. He went to them and he asked ‘How much oil do you owe?’ The man answered ‘A hundred measures,’ and the steward told the man to take his bill and destroy it, write another one and put down 50 measures. The man thought it was wonderful that his debt had been cut in half. The steward went to another man and asked how much wheat he owed. He decreased the debt by 20%. He went around to the various debtors doing that. Everyone thought this was a great deal, but he was scheming. He said ‘Now when I get put out of my job, when I’m fired, I can’t go to work. I can’t dig. To beg, I am ashamed.’ So he puts his crooked mind to work and he schemes knowing that one day when he starts calling in these favors from all these people, they receive me into their house and they will take care of me and feed me. This should last for a good while and I’ve got a good deal going! Well, here is an example of a person who was a slave to material things. He was a slave to the mammon of unrighteousness. He is the kind of person who schemes and does anything, even cheating his master even further. He is going to cause his master to lose a lot more money that what he has already robbed him of and squandered. The master doesn’t even call the law on him and put him in prison or debtor’s prison. The master seems to be of the same tone in his life because he admires his scheming ability, even though he does nothing about it. Here is one person who is going to go into the household of friends for awhile. It won’t take them long to figure him out. Can you imagine having this person come stay with you for awhile? He wouldn’t be there very long before he would cheat you out of your house and home if you would let him.
 
Then, here are the Pharisees. They are hearing Jesus teach about this man and about mammon and about riches and the love of money. They are absolutely disturbed. They start deriding him. They are making fun of Him. They are railing upon him and badgering Him because of this very strict teaching that Jesus is doing when He is calling on people to be honest and sincere, to serve God and to put God first before anything else. Look at these covetous Pharisees. That means that they love money and are greedy. They will do anything to put money in their pockets. They go about making public their gifts in public places. They bestow their gifts here and there, but only in public, never private. They have to receive the glory and be looked upon as generous, good-hearted people who love humanity who try to help the poor and others. Jesus said ‘You are trying to justify yourselves in your attitude in the way you do.’  I want you to know that God knows what is on the inside of your heart. If you read the gospels you will never find any stronger words coming out of the mouth of Jesus than those that come out when He is talking to the scribes and Pharisees and refers to them as hypocrites. He refers to them as coffins full of dead men’s bones. He refers to them as people who are trying to fool everybody, but really are fooling nobody – certainly not God. They brag on themselves, even in their public prayers. Most of their prayers are bragging on themselves.
 
He is showing us here that these are the kind of people who do not really serve God even though they are religious. They are serving the mammon of unrighteousness because they will live lives of hypocrisy. They will put on a front and a show as being good when really inside, they are greedy and grasping for every dime they can get, so to speak. So they poke fun at Him.
 
In studying the gospels, it is very difficult to preach everything that Jesus teaches and apply it to your own life. Jesus looks on the heart and He knows what is there. He told these people that if you really serve God you would pay attention to the Law and the prophets. You haven’t paid any attention to them. They speak of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is come. There is a change that has come to this world through the preaching of John the Baptist and through the ministry of Jesus. He said the Law and prophets were until John, but since then, people press their way into the kingdom and you have not recognized the kingdom of God that John preached and you have not recognized me as bringing in the kingdom of God. You have ignored the Law and the prophets. But He said the very Word that you have ignored, it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one jot or tittle of the law to fail. Do you know what a tittle is? In the Hebrew language that the Old Testament was written in, a letter might have just a slight little projection point sticking out here, just a tiny little thing. That is a tittle. He said it is easier for heaven and earth pass away than for a jot or one tittle, a tiny little particle of one letter of the Law and the prophets to fail.
 
It’s great to know that the Word of God is fixed and it stands and the Word of God cannot be changed. There are some loose interpretations of the Word these days. People are looking to religion and churches to preach whatever they like. With all the corruption and evil in our world today, everyone is seeking for approval to their lifestyle. They are afraid to come back to the Law and the prophets and the Word and actually look at it. They will say don’t bring the Bible into this! Don’t bring the Bible into this! And they go on to justify and find human reasoning to try to justify living in sin, corruption and evil. I’m glad that whether and I like it and believe it or not, or whether we interpret it properly or preach it right or not, it does not change. Jesus said not even one jot or tittle will change from the Law and the prophets and the Word of God. It will stand when the world is on fire. It will stand in judgment and people who have served mammon and have turned away from God and have loved this world will be judged by this Word, not by somebody’s opinions, not by somebody’s book that he wrote. We will all be judged by this book.
 
I thank God for the Word of God. The Pharisees, regardless of how they interpret it, and regardless of how many different rulings they add on in interpretations, Jesus stood them face-to-face and told them they were not really serving His Father. On one occasion, He even told them ‘You are of your father, the devil, who was a liar from the beginning.’
 
Let me move on to talk about this last example of a person who is totally given over to the spirit of this world. He has never looked above for anything. You know the story of the rich man who fared sumptuously every day. He was clothed in purple and fine linen. He was rich in every sense of the word. We are told in the same story that there was a beggar named Lazarus who was laid at his gate and he desired even crumbs that might come from the rich man’s table. We are told that the rich man died and Lazarus died. Jesus said that the angels came and carried the beggar to Abraham’s bosom. You need to understand that the beggar didn’t go to heaven carried by angels because he was poor. If that was the case, wouldn’t it be wonderful to know that all the poor people would be saved? There must have been something in this man’s life that caused him to fear God and to believe in God. He must have been important even though he was a beggar for the angels to come. I have known of saints who died and gave their testimony that loved ones came to greet them and welcome them. Some said angels came. Some left this world hearing angels sing. What a glorious prospect that is!
 
The rich man died and was buried. We don’t know what kind of burial Lazarus had, but the rich man died and was buried. In hell, he lifted up his eyes, being tormented in flames. I don’t know that we preach about hell very much, but I do know this: it is a place that nobody wants to go. I hate to think about anybody losing their opportunity for eternal life and joy and having to be lost forever and being in torment forever. A lot of things happened to this rich man in his thinking. When he saw across the gulf and saw Lazarus comforted in Abraham’s bosom, I guess he thought ‘I’ve seen him and heard of him many, many times and I never stopped to do one thing for him.’ I don’t know what all he thought, but from what he said, we can get an idea for what it’s like for a person who has been enslaved to riches and to this world and has shut God out; here’s what it is like to be in eternity after living a life like that, a life that never calls on God and never looks up to heaven or looks beyond this world. He asked Abraham ‘Would you just have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame?’
 
I suppose that if he could have gotten just one tiny request answered, what a difference that would have been and I guess he would have asked many, many more. But Father Abraham says to him ‘Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime received thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and thou art tormented.’ 
I remember stories from my childhood that my parents and grandparents told of people who died when they were lost. They would say things like it took four strong men to hold him on the bed when he died. One man in our community had dared to come and tempt the people of God bringing a rattlesnake and tempting them to handle it. A few days later his leg swelled up and he went to the doctor. The doctor asked him why he waited so long to come to him. He told him he had been bitten by a snake. The man died screaming for them to keep him from slipping into the flames of hell.
 
My heart goes out to anybody who is lost and who has no hope of being comforted. Thank God for the hope we have of being comforted after this life, to be in the presence of the Lord. For to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That is our hope and we live by that. Praise God! We live by that every day.
 
And now, here’s that poor man – I know he is called a rich man, but now he is a poor man because he is in torment and Abraham tells him that ‘There is a great gulf between us now and there is no way for anybody to pass to where you are now. You are isolated.’ Then he begins to pray. He gets a vision of his home and his brothers and his people back home. He prays and says ‘Send him to my father’s house. If you can’t send him here to give me comfort, then please send him back to my father’s house and to my brothers and let him testify to them lest they come to this place of torment.’
 
But he said – and here comes that same thought again – they’ve got Moses and the prophets. You see, people have the opportunity to take this Word to believe it or not, to accept it or not, they have this and if they won’t believe this, then they wouldn’t believe even if a person rose from the dead and went back. As a matter of fact, the gospel of John tells us about a man named Lazarus who was raised from the dead and he gave his testimony and you know what people tried to do to him, especially the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees? They took counsel together to kill him because they wanted to destroy the evidence of the ministry of Jesus Christ. So Father Abraham said they wouldn’t believe somebody who rose from the dead. They would just say that you had never died, you are just making up this story.
 
There was a man named Lazarus who was raised from the dead. John tells us that a lot of people did believe because of that. But these people who are totally given over to the flesh and to this world tried to destroy him. When Lazarus was raised from the dead, it was not what we call resurrection. Resurrection means you are transformed into a supernatural body. You have a perfect resurrected body like our Lord’s body. Lazarus was raised from the dead. He would die again. I’m sure he would never fear death again. They tell me that Christian people who die for a few minutes come back fussing! They want you to leave them alone and let them go on!
 
To serve the mammon of unrighteousness is to ignore God, leave God’s direction out, leave God’s principles of His Word out of your life, to be totally independent, to worship and serve things in this world. The end reward of that is to reap an eternity of torment. But to serve God is to use whatever things you have wisely for good and for the glory of God to help people and to help God’s work and the rewards for that is an eternity of comfort and joy.
 
Let me make a confession to you tonight in closing. I did come face-to-face with my mortality in a way I have never done before. I’ve done funerals and told about hope and all. But I don’t think I’ve ever thought as deeply about death even in all those funerals as I did when facing my own mortality. It did something to my heart and to my life. I am a lot more conscious of close I may be to the end of my journey and to my reward and I would like to tighten up a few things in several places in my life so that the grace and love of God would fill in a more perfect way in my life. How about you tonight? Do you feel like there is a place or two in your own heart that you would like to empty out and get full with God and His love more than you’ve ever experienced?
 
Please stand and let’s pray in closing.

The Lord’s Answer to Critics (Luke 7:19-35)

19

 And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?

20

 When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?

21

And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight.

22

Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.

23

And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

24

And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind? 

25

But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts.

26

But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet.

27

 This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

28

 For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. 

29

And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.

30

But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.

31

And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like?

32

They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.

33

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.

34

The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!

35

 But wisdom is justified of all her children.

I want us to look at this story of a great man, a great prophet of God who found himself a prisoner and undergoing tremendous hardships as a prisoner. Not having liberty any longer to be out in the open places and preaching as he had done, he hears the news of the growing and expanding ministry of Jesus. He is troubled in his own heart and he is struggling. As we look at his story, I think there are some important lessons we can learn about people who have questions about God or about Christ or about the church. People who may criticize the work of the Lord or criticize the church and we can look at some special answers to those kinds of people from this story tonight. That’s what I want us to see as we focus our attention on this great man, John the Baptist.
 
We have already talked about some the great miracles that Jesus did on a personal, particular basis. So John sends two of his disciples and he said “I want you to go and talk to him and ask ‘Are you the coming one? The one who is predicted from the Holy Scriptures-the Old Testament? Are you the one that I was sent to proclaim and show the way, or should we look for another?’” We don’t know exactly what all is wrapped up in John’s question because it reveals a troubled heart and a troubled prophet. He may be a little bit concerned about the methods that Jesus is using. He may be a little concerned the fact that perhaps Jesus is not casting away the Roman government and establishing a kingdom on the earth like many of the other disciples felt about Jesus and his ministry. But out of this perplexed state of mind and troubled heart, it seems that he needs some reassurance.
 
Well, I want you to notice this first lesson that we ought to learn and that is this: when there are perplexing questions that reveal a troubled heart and mind about Christ or his work or his methods or whatever, Jesus has a definite answer to give. It is not in words. It is in action. It is not in speeches of explanation. It is in ministry. The Bible says in verse 21 “And in that same hour he cured many [look at the word ‘many’ how it is used so many times] of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight”. He didn’t answer a word to these men. He just turned and began to do ministry, perform miracles, bring healing, bring God’s love and grace in marvelous, miraculous works of glorious grace and power. That is the answer to anybody who would inquire about God. Or inquire about the church or have a troubled mind or troubled heart about it. The answer is not speeches and explanations. The answer is ‘do the work of God.’ Hallelujah! Allow the anointing of the Holy Spirit to come down in a marvelous way and work through us to perform the healing ministry, delivering ministry and the power of God brings upon the lives of people. Amen!
 
Because you can silence a troubled heart or a troubled mind, or you can silence a critic, the quickest by letting them see the power of God in demonstration. There is nothing in the world that can so explain gifts of the Spirit like the moving of the Holy Ghost. You know, I’m a teacher and I’ve taught on the gifts of the Spirit for times and times and times again, but there’s no teacher that can really teach the word just like the Holy Spirit Himself at work. You want to know how gifts of healing work? Let somebody get healed! You want to know how the gift of faith works? Let somebody stand out in faith and see the work of God done for the glory of Jesus Christ! And on it goes. The best way to understand is for the Holy Spirit Himself to begin to work and become the teacher and make known his presence and have the liberty to operate in his glorious power. Would you say Amen! What an answer!
 
And then, he turned to the men. And he said, “Now, look. You go back to John and you tell him what you have seen and what you have heard.” Oh, hallelujah! There is nothing in this world that will soothe a troubled soul like hearing the good news that God is at work. There’s nothing that will take away doubts and worries and perplexities like knowing that God is in the midst of his people and that he is blessing and pouring out his spirit and he has the freedom to work and do his blessed will. There are people who are discouraged all over this county. Some are disillusioned about church in general. They’ve been sickened by failures here and there, television people and whatever. But there is nothing in this world that would be more beneficial and more healing and more assuring than for the word to go out that God is in his church and the Holy Spirit is working and the anointing of God is working in the lives of his people.
 
I believe that people go where they can get in touch with God. I believe they go where they can hear from God. That’s our prayer that if there are questions or critics or troubled hearts, they will hear the word that Christ is here performing his work according to his word and his promises. So Jesus sent them on their way and said to tell him what they’ve seen and heard. Now this is my method. This is the way I am working, Jesus is saying. You tell them that the blind see. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised and to the poor the gospel is preached. Oh my Lord! Those things right there will answer any critic or anybody who questions about methods or about anything in the Lord’s work when they see the results.
 
Later on in verse 35, Jesus will say “But wisdom is justified of all her children,” meaning the results that you get from your labor and from your ministry vindicates whatever method and whatever approach you take. Because when you see things happen and God backs it up, the vindication comes. Like one man told me during our recent revival, he said, “You know, I didn’t know what to think about that song and them jumping and twisting and all. I didn’t jump,” he said, and then tears came down his face and he said, “but my son received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.” Wisdom is justified of her children. Jesus is saying to John, “You look at the results and you won’t have any more questions. You won’t have any more anxiety about my ministry and whether I am the coming One or not or whether you should look for another or not.” Amen.
 
So he sent the messengers on their way and we don’t have the account of how they went back and reported and how John felt and all that. We don’t have that story exactly. But then, after the messengers had gone, Jesus turned to the people – a mixed crowd, a crowd of people that were filled with all kinds of attitudes and things. And he said, “Now look, [I’m paraphrasing here and injecting a few things./FJM] He said, “If you think John the Baptist, because he sent those men, was about to lose his faith, if you think  there wasn’t much to him, if you think he was unstable, if you think that he was weak, you’ve got another thought coming. Because let me tell you a little about that man!” Oh, that’s another lesson I think we need to learn tonight and that is, the Lord Jesus Christ protects, takes the part of people who are troubled in their heart. He knows how to read the heart and he does not judge from the outside. He understands that inside John’s heart there is a pure heart of faith and that heart is pumping strong and every time his heart beats it is coming forth with faith in his own mission and faith in the ministry of Jesus Christ. He said, “What did you go out there and see? Did you go out there to see some reed shaking in the wind?” Somebody unstable that could just be moved with every little wind that blew any direction? Ah, no, he said. “Did you go out there to see a real dandy kind of man dressed in soft and gorgeous apparel? No, he said. You didn’t go out to see that. You saw that old roughhewn prophet who came up out of the wilderness with his face looking like the judgment morning. And there was something about him that caused you to go and hear him and see what was taking place. He said besides folks like that that live so delicately, they occupy kings’ courts. They don’t know anything about down-to-earth kind of life like you know. And then he said, ‘What did you go out there to see? A prophet?” Yes, a prophet, but much more than a prophet. I felt like just preaching on that by itself; much more than a prophet, because that’s what John was.
 
He said, “This man was more than a prophet. This man and his ministry is recorded in prophecy from the Scriptures.” Now that’s a pretty good recommendation if you can tell about a person and say that person’s life and that person’s ministry and that person’s reputation has already been foretold from the sacred writings of the prophets and the Holy Scriptures. That’s not bad, is it? And then he said, “This is the one. Behold I send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before thee.” He said he’s the one.
 
Then he went further and he said, “I say unto you among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist.” I think by the time he got through telling of John, the same kind of thing happened to some of the people that used to happen when John preached and told about Christ who was to come. They got ready to get baptized. You know John came. He didn’t witness for himself. It was a kind of negative witness to himself, but it was a great positive witness to the coming One, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said, “I’m not the Messiah. I’m not some great coming One. I’m just a voice. I’m not THE person, THE man. I’m only a voice crying in the wilderness saying ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord and make his paths straight.’” And as he preached about the coming One, people came and repented of their sins to get into the kingdom of God and they were baptized in water.
 
Now the tables have turned. As Jesus preaches and teaches about his fore-runner, well the response and the result was tremendously great because the Bible says in verse 29 “And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, [and his method and what He was doing and the work that was being done and the message that was being preached] being baptized with the baptism of John.” It’s kind of a strange thing here. I was quite amused when I looked at this because here when John preached about Jesus, people repented and got baptized, confessing their sins. And when Christ is telling about John, people turn to God and get justified and they are baptized with the baptism of John. That’s marvelous, isn’t it?
 
Now, I’ve never preached about a person and got anybody converted I don’t think. We’ve preached about Jesus and people came and repented, but this is a marvelous tribute to this great prophet of God. This is part of the congregation who has seen what has happened. They have witnessed the miracles. They hear what Jesus has to say and it falls with great weight upon their hearts and their minds. But there are others who sort of outsmart themselves, Pharisees in particular, who think they know it all. They have the last word on theology wrapped up in a bag and nobody better not try to open it or change it or move it. They rejected the counsel of God and Luke says even against themselves. Being not baptized of him, not believing, not accepting, not moving in with the others who have seen the miracles and heard Jesus and what he has said and they are still untouched and they are still unmoved. That’s hard to understand, how a person can sit right next to a miracle and see the mighty hand of God at work and hear the voice of Jesus and the explanations he give and the great good news that he brings with the gospel and still be unmoved and have their hearts and minds closed to the gospel and reject it.
 
And then Jesus used a tremendous illustration of them. He said “…Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. He said that’s the way this generation is that’s rejecting the word of God. They are like children. We called out to you. John came with severity. John came like a funeral, probably never smiled and you wouldn’t play funeral with John. And here I have come and I’m saying that as long as the bridegroom is here well, the disciples don’t necessarily need to fast. I am come creating a whole new atmosphere of wedding. The bridegroom is here and you haven’t danced. What do you want? You want a religion that is like a funeral? You want a religion that’s like a wedding? And they are saying neither. You said John had a devil and you said of me that he comes eating and drinking and he’s a glutton and a winebibber. They are never satisfied. You cannot fix it right for some people. Not even the Lord Jesus Christ can fix it right for some folks in this world. They’ve got their mind made up. They’ve got their heart sewn up. They don’t even care to open up and let God get through to their lives. And so Jesus looks at them and says that they are playing games. They’re playing games with your life, your soul, your faith, just like children. You’re playing games.
 
Well, let me say to you in closing that the answers to questions and troubled hearts and critics is for the work of God to go on unhindered because the people of God pray and exercise faith and just simply do God’s work. The way to respond to those that would criticize people like John, it is alright to go to their rescue and uphold them and say ‘This is someone that God has sent.’ Because the works of God and the message of God brings people who believe and who are baptized and who are united with the church. And then those who are just playing games, we just have to deliver the message and let it rest with them and their God. Because Jesus said ‘The results of what you do vindicates and proves the way you go about it.’
 
I’m saying to this church tonight through this message that our greatest possible attraction can be if the works of God are done in our midst through the power of the love of Jesus Christ!
 
There may be somebody here tonight that has a troubled heart like John. There’s no shame in that. But oh, there is good news! Jesus’ answer will be, ‘Just let me do my work in your life.’ And then you will be satisfied. 
 
Let us lift our heart together in prayer in closing.

The Widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17)

Luke 7:11-17 

11

And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.

12

Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her.

13

And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.

14

And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.

15

And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.

16

And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.

17

And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round about.

I think in so many ways, the story of this woman, this widow of Nain, even though we don’t know her name, and yet it seems to be very outstanding and undoubtedly serves a tremendous purpose by being included in the accounts of the great miracles that Jesus did. Especially those times that he raised somebody from the dead. Three times are recorded and this is one of them, where Jesus raised someone from the dead. I want us to look at this story somewhat from the point of view or perspective of the woman herself, because I think it is really her story that we really want to talk about tonight.

What we see here is a tremendous scene, a great procession of people coming into a small city at the gate and a large procession of people coming out of the city to the gate and converging or meeting at that point. One procession is a funeral procession, a procession of death. The other one is a procession of great triumph, victory, and life. The central figure in the one procession may be a young man who is dead. But the central figure in this other procession is none other than the Son of God, who not only is the master of death, but also as the Bible teaches us over and over again, is the source of life. Here is the truth that we need to learn from this story, and that is indeed that Jesus Christ is the master in every situation, including death. He is the source of life, including eternal life.

Three scenes really stand out in this story that I would like us to look at that help us to understand the truth that is presented here in this passage. First of all, I want us to look at this woman’s ultimate sorrow. Here is a widow who has already walked this lonely road before. Following the casket borne by friends of her own husband. Somewhere outside the gates, there must be a cemetery and they are going there. The woman knows it well. She has been there often because that is where her husband lies. Now then, she going to take her only son to place him there in that cemetery, perhaps alongside her deceased husband.

Taking her son to burial has caused her to have perhaps come to the lowest ebb of her hope and strength that she has ever known in this life. Because, you see, it was so important for a woman to have a son and the first-born son in particular had responsibility for caring for his parents and showing them love and care as long as they would live. And here was not only her oldest son, but her only son, who had not lived to take care of her after her husband’s death. As long as her husband had lived, he would take care of her and she would have a home. She would be provided for. She would have loving care. She would have a companion. She would have understanding. But when he died, she still had the comfort and even the joy of being able to lean back upon her son, knowing that in the Jewish tradition and knowing that in the best of any biblical tradition or any historical tradition, the son would be there and he would look after his mother. He would provide for her and protect her. He would care for her and show love for her. She would be a part of his family, whatever his family might grow to be. But her hopes were shattered when he died. All the hopes that she had for a future in this world where somebody would love and care for her, these were gone. She would have to make it on her own from here on out. She would be faced with ultimate sorrow and hopelessness as long as she would live.

Quite frankly, I am at a loss to understand how she must have felt. Even though I have been a pastor many years, and I have gone to the graveside with many women who have laid their husbands there, yet I do not know, even as a preacher I do not know how to understand what this is like. I know in this church we have a number of widows and some of you are here tonight. Perhaps if we could sit for a while and let you talk to us, we might begin to understand what this is like, to have to say goodbye to your companion and not have that strong heart to lean upon. Not have that companion to look to and someone to share your life with. You live with memories and you hold on to the beautiful memories, no doubt. But I think it would take someone who has walked this road like she has to understand what that’s like.

Then on top of that, faced now with the death of her only son. Again, I can’t comprehend the multiplied sorrow that must come upon parents who have lost a child. All my five children are living. I cannot comprehend that. I saw my father and my mother grieve for years over the loss of one of my brothers who was killed in Lorraine, France about the time of the Battle of the Bulge or a little after, during World War II. I saw them, but I still could not comprehend the sorrow of losing a brother and certainly not from the point of view of a parent losing a child. Perhaps some of you in this house have experienced that. And if you have, you begin already, you know full well the ultimate sorrow that she is going through and what she is facing as she walks in this solemn funeral procession behind the casket of her only son.

All of a sudden, this procession comes face to face with a procession of life, as I’ve already indicated, headed up by Jesus Christ. Because many of his disciples are with him, and many, many people other than disciples are following him. And they meet. In all the crowd, Jesus sees the widow. He saw her. Now this scene really shifts and it shows our Lord’s ultimate compassion. No greater compassion was he ever experienced that we can understand than when he stood here and he saw this widow and her only son dead. He had the same kind of compassion when he raised the little girl and spoke to her. And when he stood at the graveside of Lazarus and wept. This is the ultimate compassion.

Let me say to you a little something about compassion. There is tremendous force and energy and power wrapped up in compassion. As a minister, for years I have always been tuned in to this particular clue. If while I am ministering the word or praying, I am suddenly overwhelmed with the compassion of the Lord, that is his way of saying, “I am looking at somebody that I want to help and I want you to make it available.” I know that his power stands ready to be exercised to bring healing and deliverance in the lives of people. The same way with you. When you are touched with compassion, you are filled with understanding. When your heart starts reaching out and the burden is great and you feel not just pity but you feel deep godly compassion, you know that God is at work in your heart. He is at work where you are and something beautiful and wonderful is about to take place. Isn’t that marvelous how his compassion changes us, transforms us into people of faith and action and power? He saw her.

Our Lord is one who is always attentive. His eyes are always glued in upon somebody who is broken hearted. The pain and suffering of the human heart is an attraction to the attention of our Lord. When you suffer and when you have a broken heart especially, just remember, you will be drawing his affection and his attention and his divine love. Your pain may be so severe until you’ll be blinded at the moment and not realize it. You may have physical pain and you wonder Lord, where are you? Lord, have you really forsaken me? Physical pain and broken heartedness can blind you to the fact that he is right there with you and that he sees you. He sees you in your broken heartedness and that compassion moves him not only to see you but to act. Compassion is a powerful driving force.

So he went to the woman. He stopped the procession and he spoke to the woman. He said, “Weep not.” Now, if I say that to somebody, they may or may not hear it. I know from experience as a pastor and experience in funerals that most of the time, people can’t pay too much attention to what you say. They are so filled with their grief and with their own hurt that they don’t hear many times what you are really saying and it is hard to get through. It takes the Spirit of God to come and bring the comfort and bring the help that people need in those times, because what you say perhaps is not nearly as important as merely being there in love and care and compassion. Frankly, regardless of how much you try to study to give pastoral care in crisis situations, the fact remains you meet with situations over and over again where you are indeed speechless. You don’t know what to say and you just have to show love by being there and helping to walk that road that people walk.

But when the Lord Jesus speaks to you and he says, “Don’t grieve! Don’t weep!” It’s different. It’s different than when I say or the pastor says don’t be afraid or don’t weep. When he gives you a special instruction, “Don’t be afraid. Fear not. Grieve not. Weep not.” I want to tell you, he has the power to do something about it in a very wonderful and glorious way. You can listen to him. You can stand up in faith and say, “Speak, Lord. I’m listening to you even through my tears or through my sorrow, through the pain. Yes, I’m hearing you, Lord.” Because you know he has the power to do something about it. He says, “Weep not.”

Then, that brings me to the last scene of not only the Lord’s ultimate compassion, but of his ultimate power. Jesus came and contrary to the Jewish tradition, he touched the coffin. Stopped the people who were carrying him, touched it, and then spoke directly to the young man. And he said, “Young man, I say unto you, ‘arise.’” Now that’s kind of a weird thing to do. Jesus spoke to this young man as if he could hear him. Doesn’t he know the man is dead? And yet, he is talking to him as if he can hear him.

I want to tell you, Luke is slipping in one great theological truth to us hear on the side that we just kind of pick up on the side. That is, Jesus knows how to communicate with the dead. Because they may be dead to the body but they are still alive to his voice. They still hear. Praise God! They hear him. They may not hear you, I don’t know about that. Some people deal in supposed communication with the dead and pretend that they hear their voices from the other world and so on. Sometimes that is a mockery thing done by evil spirits. The Bible gives strict orders to not engage in such thing as that. But Jesus knows how to communicate with the dead, because to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. That’s what Paul said.

If you are present with the Lord Jesus, he can talk to you and you hear him. He talked to this young man as if he were alive. He said, “Get up!” As a matter of fact, the real person never does die, it’s just the body. And when the Lord speaks to the real person who is already gone into that spirit world, that person has the ability to obey the Lord Jesus. To do whatever he says. That’s what he did each time he raised the dead. He told the little girl, “Tabitha, arise,” and she got up. He told Lazarus, he said, “Lazarus, come forth,” and he did. The Lord knows how to be in communication with your loved ones who are gone on. He is in talking relationship with them. He could tell them and instruct them to do something and they could make an appearance if he so desired.

Notice in each case, Lazarus, the young girl, and this young man, this is a raising from the dead. It is not a resurrection as such, theologically speaking. They were raised back to the state of their former life. Resurrection means you are transformed with a supernatural body like the Lord’s own glorious body when he was raised from the dead. That’s what resurrection is. It means when you’re resurrected you never die. Each one of them would come back and face death again. Unafraid, of course, knowing that Jesus would be right there.

You know, some of the doctors who have gotten involved with people who die and they are clinically dead for a few minutes and you know we had Dr. Rolands from Chattanooga come and talk to us about it here. He indicates that Christians who die, that sometimes they will fuss with you and fight with you when you’re trying to bring them back because they don’t want to come back. They’ve already got a glimpse in the other world. He said also that sinners that die, they will come back screaming, “Help me! Help me, doctor! Help me, doctor!” A whole different thing. It gives us a little bit of insight into the other side of this curtain that stands between us and death.

Jesus said to him, “Young man, arise,” and he rose up. He began to speak. I don’t know what he said. “Hi! Hello!” I’m not sure but I’m sure he didn’t talk like a Southerner. I’m not sure what he said, but he began to speak. He might’ve said, “Hey, John. What are you guys doing carrying me on this thing?” I don’t know what he said. My mind can just sort of run loose on the pulley and imagine many vain things. But he began to talk and then Jesus took him and delivered him to his mother. Oh, Hallelujah.

I could think tonight of testimonies of where Jesus has delivered young men and women not from death, but from the jaws and grip of sin and Satan and evil and delivered them to their mother or father. I imagine some of you have had experiences where the devil told you your child is gone. Forget it! Give up! But the Lord came and spoke to them and delivered them and brought them back to you. Amen! It’s just as easy for Jesus to do that as it is to bring someone back from the dead. It’s just as easy for him to bring someone back from the dead as it is to deliver your child, your son or your daughter from the clutches of sin. I’m glad that we have a savior who is compassionate and he looks upon suffering hearts with compassion.

Different things touch us and fill us with compassion. When I see a little child that I think is mistreated, I cannot handle that too well. I am moved with compassion. I saw a man and a woman and a little child walking the highway today as we were coming to church. I said to my wife, “Do you suppose they are homeless trying to go someplace?” They looked like it. And that little child walking with them. Different things touch our pity and our compassion. I want you to understand this truth if you don’t remember another thing I say tonight, that when you are hurting in your heart, the Lord Jesus is attracted to your hurt with his divine compassion. He has the power and ability to speak to you at that moment. You need to try to be sensitive and hear him. I know sometimes, as I indicated before, it’s hard to listen, but hear what he says. If he says, “arise,” if he says, “come forth,” if he says, “stand on your feet,” whatever he says, do it and his power will be manifested in your life.

May we stand together. The result of this great miracle was that a great fear came upon all the people and then that fear, reverence, awe led into the fact that they began to glorify God. They said the prophet is risen among us. And they said God has visited us. I want to tell you tonight saints, we have many reasons to reverence and fear our Lord. We have many reasons to glorify him. How many can testify by raising your hand that God has performed a miracle of restoration, bringing a son or daughter back to you, a loved one back to you from the power of sin or from some other place or from the doors of death? How many of you will raise your hand and say yes, I want to glorify God because of his miraculous power in my life? Would you raise your hand and let’s praise him. We magnify you, Lord. We glorify you. We give you honor. We give you praise. You are our light. You are our hope in this world and in the world to come. We magnify you, Lord, and we glorify you. We know you have visited us, oh God. We know you are visiting us tonight. Thank you for your visit of compassion and love upon us tonight.

This story is from the point of view or perspective of the woman herself. What we see here is a tremendous scene, a great procession of people coming into a small city at the gate and a large procession of people coming out of the city to the gate and converging or meeting at that point.

The Art of Being Merciful (Luke 6:36-42)

36

Be ye therefore merciful, as your father also is merciful.

37

Judge not, and ye shall not be judged:  condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned:  forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

38

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.  For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

39

And he spake a parable unto them, can the blind lead the blind?  Shall they not both fall into the ditch?

40

The disciple is not above his master:  but everyone that is perfect shall be as his master.

41

 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceives not the beam that is in thine own eye?

42

Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye?  Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.
Let’s look at instructions about how to practice mercy toward others. First of all we show mercy when we do not judge others, when we do not prejudge or judge at any time others and set ourselves up as an authority about other people and about their lives and who they are and how they are living.  Jesus says you be merciful, as our Father is merciful.  I am at amazed in the Scripture how many times we look for a role model and examples and the Scripture always stands up Almighty God, like Peter said be ye holy for I am holy saith the Lord.  When he looks for a model for holiness, he doesn’t pick out some individual person, but he picks out God as the great model.  Here he is saying when you practice mercy; you must practice it like your father gives mercy.  We all understand what it means for us to cry out for mercy, and here he is saying show mercy by not judging people, don’t put yourself in the place to determine whether they are right or wrong or to tell exactly whether they are condemned.  He said we show mercy when we do not condemn others.  Judging others is Gods job, not ours; we are not supposed to condemn them.  Jesus confronted the religious leaders of his day and the religious system of his day; because they had such regulations outlined until they knew exactly by the way a person acted or looked whether or not they were religious and measuring up to the Jewish law.  They were ready to condemn, so Jesus took them head on with messages like this saying it is God in heaven alone who has the power to judge and condemn.  We show mercy when we forgive. Forgive and it shall be forgiven you.  Each one of these instructions carries with it a very special blessing.  If you don’t want to be judged, don’t judge, if you don’t want to be condemned, don’t condemn.  Condemn not and ye shall not be condemned.  If you want forgiveness, we must forgive.  If you want to be forgiven you must practice forgiving others otherwise it will block your ability to receive mercy and forgiveness.  If you hold a grudge it puts you in a position where you cannot receive blessing and help from God.  That is the reason why blaspheming and sin against the Holy Spirit is so powerful, it is not that God would not have the power to forgive, but once you go that far you put yourself in a position in which you can no longer receive his forgiveness, mercy and grace, because you will not open up your heart and mind to God to receive. Here he is saying if you don’t forgive it closes the door to your forgiveness.  In the Lord’s Prayer the only part of that prayer emphasized when he was finished was forgiving people there trespasses.  We show mercy also when we give to others, this is not just giving to God, if you even give a cup of cold water to someone who is thirsty in his name that you are giving it in retrospect to him, he is also going to present this question to us in the end, when he says I was thirsty and you gave me to drink, and I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, and I was in prison and you came to visit me.  They say they do not remember this time, he said if you do it unto the very least of these people, that we have done it unto God.  What this means is that Jesus takes your actions of mercy and grace that you bestow on others as an act of ministry to him directly.  After all we are being a blessing to the members of his body and those that are not in the body, and Jesus writes it down as credit in your favor as ministry unto him.  He says to give to others, the blessing that returns to you is it shall be given unto you, pressed down, good measure, shaken together, and running over.  Sometimes the Lord calls upon you to give when you are in dire need.  I once gave a needy student one hundred dollars, money I desperately needed, but the Lord impressed me to give it to this young person, by the end of that week, there was a deposit to my good of a thousand dollars, that is what I call good measure.  I know it works, Jesus said it first of all, but I have seen it work in my own life.  Barnabas gave all he had to fund the revival, he gave to the homeless, and his name was changed from Joseph to Barnabas, otherwise known as Mr. Encourager.  He encouraged people with the way he used his money and the way that God worked through him.  Just as our Lord flowing out of our heart he wants that grace and mercy flowing into our lives and to flow out to others, when that happens God is manifesting his mercy and blessing to others.  Working through us is one way he blesses for his own glory and honor.  We will be blessed with the same measure that we measure out.  On the mount Jesus said you will be judged by the same measure in which you judge others, in other words what you require of other people is what God will require of you.  God sees the measure that comes from our hearts and he measures us by that measurement.  We show mercy to others when we admit our own faults and shortcomings instead of just talking about others faults and failures.  How can we even see the little speck in someone else’s eye, when we are looking through the beam that is in our own eye?  This is an exaggerated example, but it carries the weight of the point.  We show mercy when we don’t pick at the splinter in their eye, until we take care of the plank in our own eye.  One brother at a church I pastored would get involved in the service and pray and then get up from the altar and go get some people and take them to pray and then would spend his time trying to tell them how to live, then by Wednesday night service something would have happened to get him out of sorts with someone and he would have a temper tantrum and would come to church with the sulks and if we had a good service and he would come to the altar again and pray through again then he would be the first one to go and try to get someone to come to the altar, and  after a while this kind of pattern became old.  No one wanted to see this man coming and no one wanted to respond to him, and some told him that he needed to straighten out his own life and get solid in the word and in the love of God, before you try to show others how to live.  You don’t have to be absolutely perfect to preach the word, but it helps if people know you practice what you preach.  You can be the person that causes someone to give up on their faith because of your requirements for them that exceed what the requirements are that you give yourself.  Make sure the standards by which you live are the ones that measure up to Gods standards.  Jesus is saying to his disciples that he wants them to be a blessing to other people by showing mercy, don’t judge, don’t condemn, if they do you wrong forgive them.  He keeps coming back with these great blessings and rewards if you show mercy, give and it shall be given to you.  Following the instructions of our Lord Jesus Christ I think we can come to understand what it really means to be merciful as our father in heaven is merciful, because he looks down upon us all who were undeserving and unworthy and he loved us anyway.  And it was while we were sinners that Christ died.  If God can look beyond our faults and love us and see our needs and show mercy and grace, I believe some of those great attributes can come into our own hearts.

The Twelve Apostles (6:12-16)

12

And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

13

And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;

14

 Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew,

15

Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes,

16

And Judas the brother of James and Judas Iscariot which also was the traitor.

I want to read about this same call and ordination of the twelve from the gospel of Mark.  Mark 3:14-15

14

And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to preach. 

15

And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils.

With those accounts in mind I want us to talk tonight for a few moments at this tremendous event in the life and ministry of our Lord and Savior.  If you were on a mission in this world to reach the entire world with the gospel, how would you go about it?  Well, if it were in our own times now, there might be all kinds of strategies. We attempt to use television, radio and all kinds of media that could be used in order to spread the gospel.  But in the time of Jesus, the most strategic plan that He could possibly make is to gather people around Him whom He could trust and in whom He could bestow gifts of His love and grace and they in turn would preach and also bring others into the work of God, and it would just spread. A venture that would cover the world, but would begin on a hillside in Palestine, with Jesus choosing out of a number of disciples twelve men.
 
I want us to look at their call. First of all, He spends all night in prayer. I realize that it must have been very important for Jesus to think in terms of whom He would call, what persons He would like to have with Him. But the fact that He spent all night in prayer to God the Father about it and about His work and His mission says to me that this is extremely important; that a decision of this magnitude has to be prepared with a season of prayer that puts you in touch with the divine will of the heavenly Father.  I wish we all could understand the importance of spending that kind of time in prayer before we make any kind of decisions, any choices – any decisions of what to do in this world. Because decisions that are going to last and be this important must have the presence and power and the will of God upon us, or else we could make decisions that would not last and would not stand. Even here as Jesus Christ the son of God who knows the hearts of people and He knows all men and he knows evidently from the very beginning that one of the ones He is choosing will become a traitor and he will be unfaithful.  And yet, He must choose one like that to fulfill all scripture. So with this great decision weighing upon Him and out of the hundreds and hundreds of disciples by now, He selects and zeros in on twelve.
 
I want you to notice the nature of their ordination, as Mark put it. He ordained them. They are disciples first, but they became apostles and He ordained them as apostles. These would be messengers who would represent Him and would be sent by Him. And notice there were three parts to the call that He gives to them and that is what I want to talk about.
 
First of all, he ordained them that they should be with Him. I would like for that to kind of sink in because that point sort of preaches itself. The most important call we ever get is to follow Jesus and be with Him. We may be looking for a great commission to perform some outstanding ministry or task. We may have our eyes on some goals that we want to achieve in this world, but the primary, fundamental, most important call we ever get is to be with Him day and night, to hear His voice, to be in His presence, to learn from Him. And Jesus began what would later be known as the equipping ministry when He started by example and by teaching and by practice to show the way of ministry to these twelve apostles.  He equipped them in several different kinds of ways while they were with Him. In the first place, He really loved them. You know, you can’t do very much for people if you don’t love them.  His heart was in this, He prayed for them.  He taught them in some of the most profound lessons that would be this three and a half years or so with Jesus would be equivalent to more than anybody’s seminary experience.  Learning not only the deep profound theological things of the will of the Father and what it meant to really be a disciple and an apostle, but practical things He would send them out.  He equipped them by giving them on-the-job training and supervision. It is forever a pattern of how to develop ministry, and it a beautiful pattern.  He ordained them first and foremost to be with Him.  There are lessons you cannot learn anywhere but in His presence.  There is wisdom you can never receive anywhere else but hearing His voice and hearing His teaching. There is power that you can never achieve or come by without having His authority and understanding His divine power at work and His anointing.  He ordained them to be with Him.  There is no higher calling, there is no greater achievement in this world then to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ and to be with Him and have his influence upon our lives.
 
Secondly, He ordained them as apostles that He might send them forth to preach:  If there is any one thing that the Lord intends, it is to get His Word – the good news of the gospel spread abroad. It does not necessarily matter how we do it, it does not matter what style or what approach, but spreading the gospel is everybody’s business and it’s at the very heart of the call of God.  Not everybody feels they are called to preach as far as being a pastor or leader in the church, but we all have this call to be with Him and spread the good news of Jesus Christ.   Inherent in this call is to be sent. That is what the word apostle means – one who is sent, one who represents someone else, one who is approved of God, but who is sent by the Lord and by the church. That is what an apostle is; anybody who is sent forth by the church to push in to new territory and to evangelize and establish new churches. They fill the role and function of an apostle.  He ordained them that He might send them forth to preach, to evangelize and spread the good news, to tell people of the good news of the gospel.
 
He also knew that if they were to do this and be effective and perform the will of the Father, they must go with authority and power, so He ordained them that they would have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils.  I wish we could get a glimpse at what this really means and what it means for us in our own day.  It seems to me that the power and authority comes from firstly being with Him and then being sent by Him and then in our act of obedience of being sent by Him, then the power and authority comes.  There is not much need of anointing someone who is not going to do anything, and won’t be obedient to Christ.  It may be that He blesses us like that just to sit around, but where the real power and authority comes is when we are on our way to obey Him and do His will and carry out His commission. That is when the power comes, when you need it, when you are obedient, when you are moving, when you are answering His call and He is sending you forth, that is when it comes.
 
I teach right now in cycles, about seven different courses in preaching.  Today I heard two sermons and this week I’ve heard several from people who are just beginning, and oh, the nerves they have, but they weren’t half as nervous as I was the first time I tried to preach.  You know you think you get ready and you have about thirty minutes of sermon and in about five minutes you’re through and you just run out.  I was as bad off as the free Pentecostal preacher down in the Mississippi delta years ago when we were just starting out. You could just go in to a radio station and they would sell you a half hour and put you right on the air.  The Church of God had a program and this independent preacher kept wanting to go on and nobody would ever give him a chance to preach. Finally, he got and angry and decided he would go and get his own program and he went in and bought thirty minutes and paid cash for the time, and he got on the air and just took off, like his coat tail was on fire, and ninety miles to the first water hole and he preached for about five minutes and he just ran out of soap, he started saying things like “Whew it’s hot in here.”  He had a lot of zeal but he didn’t have near the stuff he thought he had. So finally the man at the controls had pity on him and started playing some music in the background and cut him off, and told him it was over.  But that was how I felt starting out. You get so nervous and you think well my goodness these butterflies in your stomach and is there anything in this world that will help them get in formation and smooth out.  But when you are touched of God and you start to obey and the first time God anoints you and touches you and you feel that authority and that power, that is the most exciting thing in the whole wide world!  I wouldn’t take anything in this world for there is no job that is any greater, than having the touch of God the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon you. It comes when you are obeying, moving and being sent out. Amen!  You can’t afford to get cocky about it. I remember one time I had preached a sermon a few times and man it worked good every time. It was one of those that you could reach back and turn to that passage and be sure that somebody would be blessed.  I took it for granted one time. I thought I had it all figured out. The Lord taught me a lesson. I pulled out that sermon and made the biggest shameful flop you ever heard. I am so thankful that no one had tape recorders then. I would almost pay someone to keep it from playing that sermon in public.  I learned one thing; it takes more time preparing yourself than it does preparing the message.  
 
Here is our Lord Jesus, he is about to reach the whole world with His love and grace and He starts off with twelve men and all they have to do is be with Him for a while. And when they are with Him long enough, and they follow Him even on to the cross and they follow Him even on to the resurrection and the outpouring  of the Holy Spirit upon them, from then on they will be sent out in his Name and His authority and His power and they will have this great power that will accompany them as they obey, to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils. This is what God has called His church to do, in all ages and no less in our own time, to heal people, to bring the healing grace and love of God’s wonderful grace and power to the lives of people who are sick and afflicted and hurting in so many different ways and to cast out devils, to declare war upon the forces of evil and powers of darkness, to take the offensive and invade the devil’s territory and to push him back. This is the work to which Jesus Christ calls us to do.  
 
Their names are significant and so revealing and you could do a character sketch on each one of these great apostles, and you could find out the encouragement He placed inside of them, just by the names He gave them. Can you think of a man that is going to be wishy-washy and crumble to pieces and the Lord nicknames him “Peter” or “Rock”?  It will take a while before he becomes stable like rock.  Two brothers who are fishermen that the Lord will refer to as the “Sons of Thunder.”  It will take them awhile to get to that place where the voice of God like thunder sounds through them. There are others there; Matthew a tax collector. I think that’s probably one of the greatest miracles that could ever happen is God converting and calling an IRS representative!  Wouldn’t that be great? We ought to pray that happens so that we can see a great miracle in these days.  Simon, this man who is such a zealot. Some we don’t know much about. I don’t know if anybody knows anything much about Thaddeus.   The point I am making is Jesus Christ calls human beings, men and women.  And He gives them an experience that hopefully will encourage them to obey Him and be bold in the work that He is calling them.  He knows our weaknesses, He knows our imperfections, and He knows our limitations.  Nevertheless, He calls whom He will. That is what Mark says, out of these disciples He called whom He would.  And I am glad it is left in his Hands. I remember one time on the council we were discussing certain kinds of people that come up saved and called to preach and we didn’t know whether to give them license or not. And I remember Brother M. H. Kennedy speaking up and saying jokingly “Well, we need to get God to quit calling folks like this.”  His point was well made letting the council know that this was God’s business. We don’t tell God whom to call.
 
They would not all be as great as John or the apostle Peter perhaps. Some would be like Thomas, and have some struggles in his faith. And one would be Judas Iscariot, the traitor.  I want to say to you that when God decides to evangelize the whole world, He starts with human beings just like you and me. And he calls us to be with Jesus and when we have been with Him a while, He sends us forth and goes with us with His authority and power on a mission of healing and driving back the powers of Satan.  That’s our work, brothers and sisters, and that’s our calling.
 
Let’s stand and pray.  Has God called you?  Has He called you to come closer to Him and be with Him?  That is first, do you feel a special burden to come closer to God? Come now and pray.  God is calling you to be with Him and then He will give you directions and show you what doors He will open.  
 
This is the message I want to leave in your heart tonight: if you draw near to Jesus, you will bring healing and deliverance to others. The Lord will use you.  He will bring healing and deliverance to others by your obedience, and through His glorious love and grace.  Go in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go in His love. Go in His joy, full of strength and let the Glory of God rest upon your hearts.  Amen.

The Good News (Luke 4:16-30)

16

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

17

And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

18

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19

 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

20

And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21

And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

22

 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?

23

And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

24

And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

25

But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;

26

But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

27

And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

28

And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,

29

And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might casts him down headlong.

30

But he passing through the midst of them went his way…

A passage that begins with such good news of the gospel of the kingdom of God and ends with such tragic rejection of not only the good news, but of the messenger, himself. I want us to look at this story tonight. It is strange as we see that there are negative reactions to the gospel, despite the positive message of this good news. It is often difficult for us to understand people who push away the light of truth that comes in to the darkness of their lives. People who close their ears to the voices of truth that cry out to them. People who bite the hand that feed them, so to speak, that reach out to them in love to bear good tidings and to bring healing and blessings. It is always tragic to see people close that aside – turn that aside and close their hearts to what God is doing. The scripture is filled with people who rejected Christ and who rejected the prophets before him. We can almost hear his words that we will look at later in detail on in the book of Luke when he says to Jerusalem “How often would I have gathered you together, but you just would not, because you did not know the day of your visitation.” Tragedy of rejecting not only the good news of the gospel, but the greatest messenger who ever brought the good news. 

I want us to look, first of all, at the contents of this great message of the gospel, the good news because it simply shows us what all the preaching of the word and the gospel of Jesus Christ can do, as Jesus outlined it here. He is quoting for the most part one of the great prophetic utterances of Isaiah from chapter 61, verses 1 and 2. Isaiah had prophecied of the time when the great servant of the Lord would come and say The spirit of the Lord God is upon me. And Jesus includes all of that prophecy except the last one. Isaiah goes on to finish to say that He is to declare the day of vengeance of our God. And Jesus here stops short of that one part of prophecy because He had not come to reveal the actual day of  the Lord’s vengeance or great wrath upon the earth, and He stopped before He got to that point. He just simply read the part that had to do with the good news. Let’s look at, what it amounts to. 

He shows us what anointed preaching and anointed ministry is all about. When I think about a theology of ministry or a pattern for ministry, well I cannot help but think of this passage because here is the greatest example and greatest pattern for anybody to try to go by who wants to minister God’s word and minister to the needs of people. First of all, the preaching of the good news and good tidings are directed toward the poor. It would appear that Jesus took a special interest in the poor and downtrodden and those whose lives were broken and those who were trampled upon by others. Because once he sent word to John the Baptist and said the poor have the gospel preached to them and there is no news in all the world that is any greater news to the poor than to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ that there is life, that there is hope beyond this world, that there is hope in this world, that there is deliverance, that there  is provision that God has for people right here in this world, and no greater message for the poor could ever be than the gospel of Jesus Christ, because He said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, glad tidings. 

I think sometimes in taking aim at where to evangelize and what people to evangelize that sometimes we probably miss the main target and miss the most receptive people to the gospel…that is the poor. That is probably one of the reasons why when you do actual calculations of the actual records of what is going on in the church world today, including what we are doing in the Church of God, is that in those nations outside the United States where the church is growing much more rapidly than it is here, that the gospel is being presented in power and anointing to the masses of the people instead of being directed to the classes of the people. Here in this country it seems that we have targeted the classes so to speak. And once we do, we get away from the most receptive people to the gospel. I’m glad that when I was poor, and when all of us were really poor, the Lord came to us right where we were in the condition we were in and He called upon us. I thought about it as they sang this beautiful song tonight;. “Hear my humble cry, and while on others You are calling, do not pass me by.” That’s where he came to the meek and humble and to the lowly and He called upon us in that state we were in. He didn’t wait for us to pick ourselves up. He didn’t wait for us to meet any particular kind of specifications or qualifications. He just came to us right where we were and called us. That’s His nature. That’s why He came. 

The gospel is also given He says, in the second place, that He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Can you think of any greater need in our land now than healing for brokenhearted people? I don’t know how some people bear the burdens they do. It is no wonder we see so many tragic deaths by suicide, or so many people who cannot cope with their brokenheartedness and their disappointments and their frustrations. If only they could realize fully that there is healing. There is healing for the broken life. There is healing for the broken heart. There is healing for the people who are broken physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. He is the Great Physician. He knows how to mend. He knows how to put broken pieces together, and even take away the scars. He knows how! Oh, hallelujah! You come to Him as a broken vessel and He can put your life together as it ought to be, and then it is sound and well. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted. He sent me to preach deliverance to the captives.

 

I want to tell you that we should never, never lose confidence and faith in what the gospel of Jesus Christ can form. I teach several courses in preaching. Some of them preaching from certain books of the Bible, and this is one of the things that I hope I get across in every one of those course, and that is there is power in the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we preach the Word, there is power to deliver and set people free from the bondage of sin and the captivity that sin brings. You can go with all kinds of plans and ideas, but when it comes to dealing with sin, the anointed preaching of the Word of God is the most powerful weapon to loose people and to set them free that there is, because God works in the Word and God works in the anointing preaching of the Word. You don’t have to fear, nor doubt nor worry when the Word of God goes forth, it is powerful and quick, alive, sharper than any two-edged sword. God knows how to deliver and set free through the power of the Word of God. We need to tell tonight people who are captives. There are so many who are enslaved and captive to so many things, they bound their lives, the evidence of the chains that bind them that testify that bondage to the power of sin and evil in this world. And Jesus said I’ve come to preach deliverance to these captives, to walk right in and break them loose from the prison houses of sin and despair and disappointment and failures. Thank God for the delivering power of the gospel! 

I’ve seen it when nothing could do anything. The Word of God reached somebody’s heart and changed it and transformed it. In places where I’ve been pastor, I’ve seen it when all the talking and all the pleading and all the working with people who were bound with alcohol and strong drink or whatever, was of no avail until a person got under the influence of the preaching of the Word of God and they were delivered. Somehow God opened up their hearts and minds and they reached out to embrace our lovely Lord Jesus Christ who could deliver them from that bondage.  

He said I’m also coming in this mission and in this preaching of the good news to bring the recovering of sight to the blind. When He uses the word ‘recovering’ that sort of gives us the indication that he may be talking to some who were one time could see, but now they’ve lost it and the sight needed to be recovered. I find in this passage that not only is it referring to people who are blinded by sin and who are in the darkness and in some cases physical blindness, but He’s talking about people who one time knew the light and now it’s gone and their sight is gone and they need to get it recovered. Then He began to zero in on where some of the very religious people who were hearing him, where they really lived in their own experience. 

One of the richest experiences of my life was to be a pastor at one church where there was a retired minister who became a close friend to me and my family. He was blind. In southern Illinois, his name was Dalton Short. In his youth he was a coal miner. He got saved. God called him to preach. He was disfigured in his face. He had a cleft palate. He had a speech impediment. You never could quite understand him clearly, and when he started to face the fact about trying to start out to preach, he just kind of rebelled. He just felt like he could not do it. He didn’t think people would listen to him. So he went back into the mines. One day as he was driving a sledge hammer on a big spike a sliver of steel broke loose and flew up and hit him and pierced through one eye and went through and cut the nerve in the other eye blinding him. He came out of there and became willing to try to preach the gospel and God healed him. He could see. But then he had the same kind of thing to happen to him. He wrestled with it and said “How can I go and preach the gospel like I am?” And he went back into the mines. One day he was way back where they call the face, where they are drilling and putting in dynamite to shoot the coal loose from the walls. God said to him, “You will serve Me. You will obey Me.” And just like that, his eyesight went and he was never able to see any more in his life. But he came out seeing better than a lot of people have ever seen with 20/20 vision. He got 20/20 vision from the Word of God. He won a lot of people to God. He pastured churches. He did all kinds of things in the state of Illinois. He taught me so many things about how to be with a blind person.

Most of us feel very uncomfortable around a handicapped person, or a person who is blind. We don’t know how to act or what to do. He taught me simple little things like going up to get in a car – putting his hand on the handle and he opens the door and he knows which way the car is headed if he opens the door. If you open the door and say ‘Get in,” he doesn’t know whether to try to sit down this way or this way. But if he opens the door, he knows how to get in the car. Doesn’t that make sense? Well I didn’t know that! All kinds of things he taught me. We got to where we could just go anywhere, go in any restaurant, go in a dime store. He loved to just go. He didn’t get to go much. I’d say ‘Look at this!” And he’d look at trinkets and stuff in the dime store, he would feel of it and he was just amazed. He would get up and sing. He could play the guitar well and he would sit there and play the guitar, I would play the piano and we’d play together and he would sing. He had a lot of songs. Most of his songs had something about seeing. “I’m holding to the unseen hand.” One of his favorites was “Face to Face with Christ, My Saviour.” I want to tell you, he may not have seen a lot of things in this world, but the Lord had delivered him from that spiritual blindness and he could see into another world. And he left this world shouting glory and giving praise to God and they called on me and I had the honor to go and minister at his funeral. 

I want to tell you that Jesus came to take away the worst kind of darkness of all, to roll back spiritual blindness and to heal and to bring out the true light into the hearts of people so they could see God and His truth and His love and His wondrous grace.

He goes on, he has sent me to bring liberty to the bruised, the people who are battered and bruised and abused and oppressed. Oh, what the gospel can do for people who have been trodden underfoot and who have been battered and who have been bruised and hurt. I dare say that if some way we could pull the door of our hearts open and could reveal what was inside like Bennie Triplett’s song used to say ‘How About Your Heart?”, I dare say we could see scars in everybody’s heart of some bruising you took, some hurt you suffered and experienced. I think we all could probably testify of that. But at the same time, I think we could all shout ‘Glory’ because the healing mercy of God has healed and bound up the brokenness and healed the bruising and the wounded hearts because Jesus Himself who lived and ministered with a broken heart, He knows how to treat people who have been bruised. He was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed! Hallelujah! You don’t have to carry the scars of being bruised or being hurt. You don’t have to carry that load around with you. He lifts it. Hallelujah! He lifts it and sets us free. Oh praise God forevermore. Hallelujah!

And then finally He says “I’ve come to present the acceptable year of the Lord,” meaning I’ve come to give you the right opportunity for you to accept the message. And with those words He closed the book and sat down. I want you to just see briefly the reaction. Hard to comprehend. First of all, some wondered at His words and they just didn’t understand how He could talk like this. So they began to ask questions. Isn’t this the son of Joseph? How can He do this? And Jesus answered and said, a prophet in his own country, among his own people does not have any honor. He doesn’t seem to receive honor. People never expect much out of him. He comes from the home town and they know him, about his life and his upbringing and his parents and so on. So He went on to give two examples. Two examples of the fact that people don’t know when they have got it really good of God’s grace and love about them. He said for example in the time of Elijah when there was great famine for three and a half years, he said there were many widows in Israel. But Elijah was not sent to a one of the widows of Israel, but he went over to Zeraphath to a widow of Sidon and she fed him. When he told her to make me a cake, well, she obeyed him and she fed him until the famine was passed. Here was somebody who recognized the prophet of God and helped to take care of him, leaving the impression that nobody in Israel so close to this wilderness prophet would ever have accepted him and his word and tended to his needs. I want to tell you it’s a tragic thing when you’ve got the light and you close your eyes to it, when you have bread but you won’t eat it, when you have joy but you don’t partake of it. It’s a tragic thing when God moves toward you and it’s right there by you close and you don’t reach out and accept it.

And He said here’s another example. There were many lepers in Israel in the days of Elisha. But He only helped bring healing to one man, not a man of Israel, in this one occasion, but he was a man of Syria, Naaman of Syria. Now you can imagine what was happening in the minds of the people. Because He had said ‘This day this is fulfilled in Me, this day this whole work of the gospel of the good news is brought to you and is fulfilled what Isaiah the prophet said. And through their rejection and their questions, not so much about the message but about the messenger, they began to back away. And they responded not only with questions, but then they responded with wrath. They took Him out to the edge of the city intending to throw Him off a high cliff and get rid of Him. We don’t understand that. We can’t quite comprehend the terrible rejection of Jesus in Nazareth. When He comes to bring life and they want to give Him death. When He comes to bring healing and they want to destroy Him. We can’t quite understand that. And yet, it shows us the pattern of rejection that comes from the hearts of all people who are exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ and who do not want to accept it in its fullness.

Yes, there are negative reactions to the gospel that still go on, but oh thank God for the positive reactions of faith that people have had down through the ages and continue to have and who believe on Him and rise up, not rejecting the gospel, not rejecting His messengers that come, not rejecting the Holy Spirit that comes, but embracing the whole message and what God is sending our way. As for me, I want it all. Don’t you?

The Bible talks about that Jesus was made poor so that He could make us rich. He was wounded so that He could heal our wounds. He died to deliver us. Lift up your heart to Him to thank Him. When you were poor and He came with the good news. When you were bruised and battered and He came with healing. I want you to testify in your own mind recalling those times when the Lord came to you with healing and deliverance, giving you sight and giving you strength. Will you take just a moment and let’s worship God in that way.

Tragedy of rejecting not only the good news of the gospel, but the greatest messenger who ever brought the good news.

The Victorious Christ (Luke 4:1-15)

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 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

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 Being forty days tempted of the devil, And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

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And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

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 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

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 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

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And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

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If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

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And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.

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 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:

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 For it is written, He shall give His angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee:

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And in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.

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And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

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 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

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And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region around about.

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And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.

It’s a time, as you very well know, that Satan is fighting against all of us, everyone in the Church who is trying to live for God and be a witness for Him. It seems as if there is a special assault upon leadership and ministry in the Body of Christ. And it is indeed a time when we need to focus attention upon how to be victorious as we face the attacks of Satan. That’s what I want to talk about tonight. I want to talk about the Victorious Christ and His great example in coming up against Satan’s attack and temptation. And then, as we look at Him and His pattern, the way He overcame, that will give us application for our own lives as to the kind of pattern to face the attacks of Satan.

Our lesson commences right after Jesus has gone to the ministry of John the Baptist and has been baptized in water. There, He has acted out a perfect example of obedience to the perfect will of God. As a result of that, the heavens were opened and a dove, the Spirit like a dove, came lighting upon Him and then the divine approval of the Heavenly Father, “This is my beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased.” After that great experience of receiving divine power and anointing of the Holy Spirit, and then the divine approval of the Heavenly Father our text says that “He returned then from Jordan, being full of the Holy Ghost.” I want to say to you immediately in the opening part of this service in this message that here is a keynote that keeps sounding throughout this message. It begins and ends with Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost and power. Before His temptation and afterwards, which is to say that the best prevention to keep from falling into temptation or yielding to the attack of Satan is to be full of the Holy Ghost. We will see in this passage that the Word of God has a tremendous part to play in our equipment of pushing off the attacks of Satan. The power of the Spirit of God and the power of the Word of God working in our lives, these two things in combination will equip any person to overcome the power of Satan. Just as Jesus was the victorious Christ at this temptation. Following His pattern and being full of the Spirit and standing on the Word is the formula, it is the divine prescription that gives us the strength and the ability to withstand the attack of Satan. Sometimes these things seem so simple that they just almost pass us by. But those people who listen to Satan and talk to him and fall into his snares and pay attention to his devious propositions evidently they are not paying enough attention to the Word and they are allowing the fire of the Holy Spirit to burn low. Because you know and I know as Pentecostals that the Holy Ghost is given to us in the mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost to equip us to withstand the very forces of evil in any form that might come against us in these days. I trust that if we don’t get one other thing out of this message tonight that we will think in terms of holding on to the power of the Holy Ghost and staying built squarely on the Word of God in order to overcome the attacks of Satan. What this passage teaches us is that the worst that Satan can come against us with, that we can overcome it through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. I want us to look at it tonight, the very methods that Jesus used in being the Victorious Christ over the power of Satan.

First of all, we can see from this story that Satan attacks us through our physical needs, through the fleshly body. That is one of the reasons why that the Bible is so filled with so many injunctions and instructions, commands, encouragements that teach us that there is more to life than living out a human fleshly animal existence, so to speak. Here, Satan says to Jesus ‘If you are the Son of God, now you ought to prove it by doing a miracle because you haven’t eaten for forty days and you are hungry and your body needs sustenance. It needs to be fed and you need strength and so just command this beautiful – it probably looks like a loaf of bread – command that to be turned into bread because you need to take care of the physical.’ But this great text that Jesus uses to come back in answer to Satan is one of the greatest texts of the whole Bible because it says ‘It is written that man shall not live by bread alone.’ You can’t live just for the flesh. You can’t live just for the physical. You can’t live just by bread. You have to have the Word of God coming into your life that brings eternal life. That’s the only way you really get life in this world.

Now you know and I know that the philosophies of our age and society now lean strongly in that direction because all in the world that this world is looking for, so to speak, is the material – the things that will satisfy the desires, the appetites of the flesh, comforts and food and clothing and all these things. This is the cry on the lips of millions and millions and millions around our world. There have been great philosophies that have said, ‘This is all that’s worthwhile,’ but we have seen Communism, one of the strongest proponents of that, we have seen it crumble because people have become disillusioned and disappointed and said when you live just for the material, something is lacking and it falls apart and it won’t last and it won’t hold together. Some way, some how God expects us to live on a higher plane than just mere animal level that’s looking for dog eat dog type thing to get what I want to satisfy my own physical needs. That’s what Satan was doing. He was trying to reduce Jesus down to that level of not much more than an animal who would show off in order to get bread. But Jesus counters and He says ‘Man cannot live by bread alone.’ You can’t live, friends, by whatever the material things of this world. There has to be some attention given to the spiritual. When people give more attention to the physical and material than they do the spiritual they are headed for disappointment, confusion, spiritual bankruptcy and real trouble in this world. Because, as we have seen, people become absolutely enslaved to things, to food, to the material, to everything about us.

I want to say just a word or two right here. It’s going to sound a little rough, but when you look at the pages of Scripture and the pages of history, you will see that God allowed people to come to a place where they grieved over their position and cried out to Him and then He moved in to deliver them as they began to understand that there’s more to life than the material. We are calling on God to come to really give us life. There is a great sense in which God has to bring judgment upon the peoples of this world to cause them to turn and even face and confront God and to remember there is something beyond this fleshly life, this earthly life. You cannot live by bread alone. You need bread. These are basic human needs that I am talking about, yes. But you cannot live by that alone. There has to be the Word of God coming from the very mouth of God to give real life. The materialist, the humanist and others that are filling our whole world with philosophies, they are just looking for promising some kind of great utopia where everything will just be alright. Even as much respect and admiration as I have for our President, almost everything he talked about how to do with this area of our life last night. It is very, very little said in public places and political circles about morality, about the spiritual, about honoring God even though…perhaps…I don’t know how to comment on it, but because on the one hand I am proud that we had on our money ‘In God we trust,’ but at the same time, you and I know that that might be a mockery as far as God is concerned. Somebody back there in this nation had the idea that you can’t live by bread or money alone, but that in God we trust, and somehow that message has to come back to the hearts and lives of people in our day for them to understand that God is still on the throne and is going to be reckoned with.

The second approach of Satan to the attack of Jesus shows us that Satan attacks us in the areas of our desires for power and glory. Another one of the philosophies of our time now is this grasping for power. Power over other people, power in authority to be recognized as some great leader and what we are seeing in our own time and our own country is the terrible absence of people who have great leadership qualities. Almost every time we have a political campaign like we are about to face, well some of the so-called would-be leaders they are exposed to their lives of immorality. And we look at the people who fill the panels of the Senate to examine somebody else and we wonder ‘Well, what in the world are they doing up there? The pot calling the kettle black, so to speak.’ The desire for power, no matter how you get it, and Satan said there’s a good way for you to do it. I’m going to show you all the kingdoms of this world and that is a sight just in panoramic view, so to speak, in a moment’s time He was able to see all the kingdoms of the Roman empire. Satan said ‘I have been appointed over all of this. I am ready to give this to You and to turn it all over to You if You will do one thing,’ a simple price tag, ‘and that is if You will bow down to me and worship me.’ You see, this is the big lie of Satan. If you pay attention to him you’ll get the power and you’ll get the glory. Some people have bought that message and for a while they thought they were going to get everything and they wound up disillusioned and disappointed and bankrupt and in trouble and absolutely spiritually depleted and they realized that Satan is the big liar and the big cheat that he really is. We all may have some kind of desire for power and for glory. But Jesus’ answer shows us the way to deal with Satan when he comes to us with his schemes to give us some kind of great knowledge and power as he did with Adam and Eve and said ‘You’ll be as gods.’

Can I take just a moment here and sidetrack to preach just a moment? The kind of theology or philosophy that would try to lead you and me to thinking that we are some kind of gods is dangerous and it’s a damnedable kind of heresy. It is the same kind of argument that Satan has put forth to Jesus; you worship me and you will have the power and the glory. The way the Lord Jesus promises power and glory, He says ‘If you suffer with me, you will reign with me. There is a price to pay and you will receive power and glory. You will receive power in my Name, power through the Spirit, power through my Word and you will receive everlasting glory with me.’ Yes. It is promised. It is provided…power and glory. But never in the way Satan offers. And Jesus says ‘It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve.’ Now Satan was smooth enough and sharp enough and sneaky enough not to say to Jesus ‘Now, worship me and then I want you to serve me.’ He didn’t add that second part on. But Jesus knew that when you start worshipping something, it is not long until you are enslaved and you are serving that something you worship. You start bowing down to the altar of Satan and pretty soon, you are totally in his service. On the other hand, you start bowing down before the Throne of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and pretty soon you are joyfully in His service. Real worship is like Isaiah in the temple when he says ‘Here am I, Lord. Send me.’ After he had worshipped and seen the vision of God. When you see a vision of the High and Holy God in His glory and in His power, then you want to bow down in humility because the Scripture teaches that the way down is the way up. The weight of glory and honor is first of all to go through humility. Jesus demonstrated it that night when He washed the disciples’ feet and He said ‘If you really want to be on my right hand, gird yourself with the power of service and wash your brother’s feet and serve him and serve God and that is the way you will rise in glory.’

You see, everything that the Bible teaches about glory and power is almost completely opposite to the philosophies of this world. That’s the reason why people step on everybody else to get to the top and even before they even know it, they are getting tromped on and torn to pieces and they’re falling and someone else is riding over them. But, oh thank God for the glory and the power that comes through worshipping God and humbling our hearts before Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Hallelujah! I feel His presence here. Let’s take a moment and praise Him. We love you, Lord Jesus. We love you, Lord Jesus. We want to bow our hearts and worship You, and You only. We want to serve You, Lord. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Satan promises power and glory but he really gives nothing, and it’s a horrible price a person pays to wind up with nothing.

The third method of Satan’s attack when Jesus shows us that Satan attacks us and tempts us through our own self ego needs. We’re hearing a whole lot about this. Psychology, television, talk shows, all these kinds of things, it seems as if people are just absolutely obsessed with developing the self and strengthening and helping the ego. I grant you that most of us need a whole lot of that kind of encouragement and help. I would not discredit that. But when it comes in the form of the way Satan talks to you about it, then it gets to be scary…dangerous. Because he wants us to do something spectacular in order to be recognized and to be seen as some great one.

I never will forget my wife and I had just moved over into Alabama and we were in evangelist work, preaching revivals in churches. We went to open a new church in Ft. Payne, Alabama. We started that church and built the first little church almost with our own hands. I was at the ripe old age of 19! It was something! But there were some people who were building a reputation for themselves in radio ministry and they traveled every Saturday in particular to the different towns and there were about 4 or 5 different radio preachers who came at a certain time. They had it all coordinated and organized. Different ones would come into Ft. Payne on a little park square there where there was little platform raised where you could plug in a loud speaker, and it was church nearly all day long. One of these groups we came to know fairly well, but I remember one day, one of the women in the group said …she was talking about Aimee Semple McPherson. She said ‘Oh, I want to do something big for God so bad I don’t know what to do.’ It struck me kind of funny then, and it is still sounds kind of funny. It sounds like ‘I want to get the glory. I want to be recognized. I want to get the honor. I want to be great. I want to build myself up.’ And that group came to a very bad end shortly after that. Satan said to Jesus, ‘Now look, you need to let me be your PR person. You’re so great. You’ve got such great claims, if you’re the Son of God now, what you need to be doing is really shining out here where people will take notice of you and see you for what you really are. You’re hiding yourself.’ See? That’s the way Satan talks to you. He says ‘Oh look, you’re hiding yourself away. Nobody is going to appreciate your talents and your abilities if you stay hid like you are and stay in this background. You need to project yourself and get out there and do the spectacular and get in the limelight.’ I read a long time ago about a wise man. He said preachers especially have the temptation first of all, to whine or shine. It’s always one or the other. They are always grumbling and complaining on the one hand or else they want to shine in the limelight and get the glory. I’ve seen it that pastors didn’t want anybody to be healed in the homes of the members where they prayed very much. They wanted them to wait until they got to church and turned the spotlight on and when they laid their hands on them, then send out the reports and advertisements ‘This is the place where people get healed!’

The Victorious Christ and His great example in coming up against Satan’s attack and temptation.