The Popularity and Power of Jesus

Thank you choir, let's pray together father You are so good to us and to give us your word where we can open it up and read it and understand Your great glory. I pray that today we would get a a greater glimpse of that glory that it might change us forever That we might see only jesus And thus leave worshiping you in a way in which we have yet to do because you transform everything about our lives that we Might be like you We pray in jesus name amen if you have your bible turn with me to luke chapter 6 as we Continue on at a very fast pace the study of the gospel of luke It's been two years in two months since we began this great study in luke chapter 1 verse number 1 And now we find ourselves some two years later in luke chapter 6 at that rate It'll take us a long time to finish the gospel But we're in no hurry because we want to take every part of the gospel Because it describes for us our great god and savior.

Jesus christ and today we come to a paragraph. That's really At the outset when you read it think well, it's just not much there for us to to grasp but on the contrary It's it's loaded with information It's a it's a little paragraph that it's not routine. It's not mundane Although when you read it you think that's exactly what it is, but it's not because it is the word of god And because it's god's holy word. It provides for us another glimpse of the greatness of our god And therefore we need to study it.

Let me read it to you and then we'll begin It says in verse number 17 and he descended with them and stood on a level place And there was a great multitude of his disciples And a great throng of people from all judea and jerusalem and the coastal region of tyre and sidon Who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases?

And those who were troubled with unclean spirits Were being cured And all the multitude were trying to touch him for power Was coming from him and healing them all This is a portion of scripture That doesn't give us a specific sermon It doesn't tell us about a specific miracle Nor is there a certain conversation that takes place? It's like a summary of the ministry of our lord It speaks of his popularity And it speaks of his power And so when we read it we come to understand More About our lord. We've told you before that that every verse of scripture tells us something about our lord Describes him to us The bible is the story Of our god.

It's his story and the things he wants us to learn About him. So whether it's a verse whether it's a phrase whether it's a word It is the inspired word of god and it helps us understand our lord Who he is And what he does And when we read this brief paragraph we come to realize the greatness of god When we come to worship on sunday morning, we come to worship our god We come to see jesus. We come to to honor him. We come to serve him We don't come to church to be served We come to church to serve we come to church to worship worship is our spiritual service, right?

Romans 12 1 and 2 our spiritual service is to honor and praise and worship Our god and so when we come we come to worship him in spirit and in truth and this little paragraph Which at the outset doesn't seem like there's much to it Is a is a little stop In the narrative of luke that helps us come to grips with the magnitude of the ministry of our messiah And that's what we want to talk about with you this morning We come to worship god On sunday, we come to see him as the light of the world because that's who he is And we know that because he is the light of the world the bible says in first john 1 verse number 5 that that god is light And in him is no darkness at all So when we come to worship the god who is the light of the world we come to worship his unblemished character We come to worship the one whose light was unleashed Upon the world john chapter 1 verse number 9 tells us that he is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world and yet Because he's light first timothy 6 10 says he is Unapproachable because he dwells in unapproachable light yet god is light So, how do we know the light of the world?

Well god is love, right? And because he is love god sent his only son Into the world luke describes for us deity Encased in humanity Describes to us the humanity of deity. That's what luke's gospel is is all about It speaks to us about the nature of the god man And so because god is light and he's unblemished He's been unleashed upon the world yet. He's unapproachable We understand that god therefore is love because as love he now becomes Approachable He now becomes the god that we can approach and come to because That god whose light is encased in humanity He dwelt among men and we beheld his glory.

The glory is of the only begotten of the father full of grace and full of truth And that love is absolutely adorable Why remember the mad giant matthew chapter 2 verses 10 and 11 when they came they bowed at the feet of jesus and they worshiped him And that love then becomes applicable to your life and the mind We now can be called the children of god because the love that he bestows upon us So when we come to worship god, we worship him as light. We worship him as love and we worship him as life First john chapter 5 verses 10 11 and 12 First john 5 verse number 20 speak to us about our lord being that eternal life John 14 6 christ says I am the way the truth and The life and he is the life that saves Not only is he the light that saves he's the light that satisfies John 6 tells us that he is the bread of life And that bread is that which satisfies and supplies All the needs that a man might have he secures because that's the way his life is The eternal life is the secure life because it's the saved life And so when we come together on sunday, we worship a god who is light.

We worship a god who is love We worship a god who is life and we worship a god who is lamb He is the land who came He was the land who was crucified and he was the land that was crowned for all eternity John the baptist told us that behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world Revelation 5 tells us that when john saw the vision of the lamb It was a lamb as if he had been slain speaking of his crucifixion yet. That lamb would receive the crown and be glorified So when we come to worship we worship god as light as love as life And as lamb, but we also worship him As liberator revelation 1 verse number 5 says that when jesus came he came to release us to liberate us from our sins He he released us from that bondage.

So when we worship him we worship him as the consummate liberator of those Who are enslaved by sin? To those who are embattled with satan and those who are embittered and embarrassed because of the condition of their sin nature And he is the one who liberates us from all that sin Because only he can do that through the blood that he shed as the lamb of god So when we come to worship him we worship him number one as the god who is light And when he sheds that light upon us, we see our sin And we know that we're he's unapproachable but yet he's the god of love who came to die for our sins to give us life So we worship him as the god of life We worship him as the god who is land The god who is liberator.

We also worship him as lion of judah Genesis 49 talks about how the scepter will not depart from judah until shiloh comes or to the one to whom it belongs Arrives. Well, that's the messiah And messiah is that great lion of judah is that judge of all the earth according to john chapter 5 and revelation chapter 20 He is judge and jury So when we come to worship god, we worship him as lion of judah, but we worship him as lord of all Because he is redeemer He is ruler and he's returning once again to set up his kingdom And that's how we worship god seven-fold aspect of of the lord god that we come to worship we come to see him as Light we come to see him as love and life We come to see him as lamb liberator and lion as well as Lord of all for one day every knee will bow Every tongue will confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father Father That's how we worship our god.

That's who he is I love the description of one man one preacher who tried to describe the indescribable In this way, it's quite lengthy bear with me, but I believe that at the end you'll understand its meaning The preacher says the bible says my king Is a seven-way king He is the king of the jews That's a racial king He's the king of israel That's a national king He's the king of righteousness That's a spiritual king He's the king of the ages That's an eternal king He's the king of heaven the king of glory.

That's a celestial king he's the king of kings and lord of lords, that's a Universal king and he is my king. He is a personal king and I wonder Do you know him? asking David said the heavens declare the glory of god and the firmament shows forth his handiwork, but my king is a sovereign king No means or measure can define his limitless love No far-seeing telescope can bring into visibility the coastline of his all-sufficient supply No barrier can hinder him from pouring out his blessings. He is enduringly strong entirely sincere eternally steadfast Immortally graceful empirically powerful impartially merciful and I wonder Do you know him?

Well, he is the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world He is god's son savior of sinners centerpiece of civilization He stands in the solitude of his own self and he is unique. He is unparalleled. He is unprecedented He is the loftiest letter of all literature. He is the highest personality and philosophy He is the supreme problem in higher criticism. He is the fundamental doctrine of true theology and he is the indispensable necessity for spiritual religion He is the miracle of the age.

He is the yes And he is the yes He is a superlative of everything good that we would choose to call him He is the only one qualified to be our all-sufficient savior and I wonder Do you know him? He supplies strength for the weak he's available for the tempted and tried he sympathizes and he saves he strengthens and sustains He guards and he guides he bears the tormented and he heals the sick. He cleansed the lepers He forgives sinners. He destroyed discharges debtors. He delivers the captives. He defends the feeble He blesses the young he serves the unfortunate.

He regards the aged he rewards the diligent and enables the meager This is my king And I wonder If you know him He is the key to knowledge and the wellspring of wisdom He is the doorway to deliverance and the pathway of peace He is the road to righteousness the highway to holiness and the gateway to glory. Do you know him? Well, his office is manifold. His promise is sure his life is matchless His goodness is limitless. His mercy is everlasting and his love never changes His word is enduring his grace is efficient his rage is righteous and his yoke is easy His burden never light.

I wish I could describe him to you But he's indescribable Yes, he is Good god. He is indescribable Yes, he is simply indescribable because he's simply incomprehensible He's invincible. He's Irresistible You simply cannot get him off your mind. You can't get him out of your head You cannot live him and you can't live without him The pharisees couldn't stand him, but they found out that they couldn't stop him Pilate found no fault in him. The witnesses couldn't get their testimonies to agree Herod couldn't kill him death couldn't handle him and the grave couldn't hold him.

Yay That's my king That's my king And his is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever and ever and never How long is that? And ever and ever and ever and never and when you get through with all of the forevers then He's the amen And I wonder If you know him That's our king That's the messiah Indescribable No words can come can can describe him for you in such a way where you'll completely understand him And when luke began to write Way back in chapter one. He wrote to one man named theophilus He said theophilus.

I want you to know the exact truth about the story of the messiah The exact truth now theophilus was a believer theophilus had come to know christ Theophilus was a man who understood the truth, but luke writes so that he will receive Exactly what he needs to know about the king So when it's all said and done all questions about the messiah Will be answered And so in our study of the gospel of luke we are looking at about the exact truth of jesus the messiah And we have seen how luke has presented to us Every key aspect of his life that determines for us and for all the world to see that this one.

Jesus is the messiah He began way back in luke chapter one talking to us about the testimony Of the angel gabriel as it came to zacharias That was the first event that took place because he was going to begin with the forerunner to the messiah so gabriel would come to zacharias explain to him that he would have a son and that testimony would Give us the identity of the one who would come and precede the messiah And then we had the testimony of zacharias as well as the testimony of elizabeth his wife To talk to us about who?

their son was Because he would be the forerunner john the baptist would be the forerunner to the messiah And then we had the testimony of of mary in the virgin conception and how it is this young girl would conceive the son of god in her womb And that testimony went to her husband joseph and then that testimony then would begin to grow as zacharias would write a song And mary would write a song there in luke chapter one about the coming Of the messiah when you come to luke chapter 2 you have the testimony of the shepherds who come to the angel To uh, i'm sorry the testimony of the angels who came to the shepherds They're in the the fields of bethlehem and talk about how the son of man had arrived that there was a savior That was born in the city of david And those shepherds began to testify to the identity of the messiah as they would go to bethlehem And meet with joseph and mary and talk about all the things that the angels had said to them as they explained from their perspective the identity of the messiah And mary would learn to ponder all those things up In her heart and then mary and joseph would make their way to the temple and we'd have the testimony of simeon As he was the one who would wait for the day The messiah would arrive that god had promised him that he would not die until he held the messiah in his arms We had the testimony of simeon then we moved to the testimony of anna as she would testify to the consolation to the redemption of Jerusalem the one the messiah who would come and bring that redemption And then you had the testimony of jesus himself at age 12 at the end of luke chapter 2 as he talks about the fact that He is the son of god that he must be about his father's business And you move on to luke chapter 3 and you had the testimony of john the baptist As he would begin to proclaim as forerunner to the messiah the truth about repentance and turning from sin To follow the one who is the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world And then you move from there to talk about the testimony at his baptism Where christ would go and be baptized and the testimony of the spirit that would descend upon him to prove Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1 and 2 that the spirit of god would descend upon the messiah Then you have the voice that comes down out of heaven This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased the testimony of the father And then you have the testimony of the genealogy of christ at the end of luke chapter 3 as you begin to go back and realize All that's there concerning who he is that he is the rightful heir to the throne Because he is the son of david.

He is the son of abraham He is the son of adam and luke gives us that genealogy through his mother mary And then you come to luke chapter 4 and you have the temptation of the messiah and we see once again that he proves himself As the king of kings and lord of lords because he is a sinless spotless son of man Who cannot be tempted or who is tempted at all points like we are yet without sin because he is the son of god He is god in the flesh and how he overcomes Temptation in the wilderness and then you begin the ministry of the messiah The ministry of the messiah In luke chapter 4 verses 15 and 16 as it begins to go about preaching and teaching and healing And doing all kinds of miracles and all those things testify To the identity of christ being the messiah as he would preach the word of god as he would do miracle after miracle after miracle And as you begin to run through the revelation I mean, uh, yeah through the revelation of luke you begin to see all that's happening with messiah and now luke just takes a simple Little break A simple break when you come to luke chapter 6 of just a short few verses that kind of summarize the ministry Of the messiah He's presenting to theophilus the exact truth He doesn't want there to be any question in the mind of theophilus as to who the messiah is and he That's why he rehearses all the testimonies of all those individuals who had a personal encounter with the living god Because he wanted theophilus to know the truth And that's why we preach the bible Because we want you to know the truth about the messiah We want you to know who he is We want you to be able to worship him in spirit and in truth We want you to know who he is based on the word of god And so luke after describing to us how he would choose his men We've gone through all the apostles all 12 of them We discussed them at length and we had that in a tape album or a cd album if you wanted to purchase those you can But we wanted you to understand the men that he would choose and now now that he's chosen his men and before he begins to preach his next sermon a sermon that we To some degree are or well acquainted with because it's that famous sermon called the sermon On the mount in luke chapter 6 we've already Studied matthew's account of that many probably I think it was about 11 years ago Now we studied matthew's account matthews 5 6 and 7 and we will Today or next week we'll study luke's account of the sermon of the mount But what we have before us is a little paragraph that leads into that That helps us understand the ministry of the messiah to help us understand the popularity of the messiah He was the greatest thing going the greatest thing He was so popular talk about popular everybody Listen, everybody wanted to hear him Everybody wanted to see him There wasn't anybody who didn't want to see him And if they were sick, they wanted to be touched by him or at least touch him And that's what the text tells us And we're going to look at the popularity this morning of the messiah And then we're going to look at the power of the messiah because that popularity will soon Subside in our study of the gospel of luke right now.

He's the greatest thing going Right now everybody wants a piece of the messiah But when it's all said and done Nobody wants to do have anything to do with the messiah So let's begin with his popularity. Let's understand where he is This is a time in which the physician with precision that's that's luke. He's a physician He's a physician who became a theologian and with precise accuracy He describes for us the messiah in exact truth So we won't have any questions about his identity his ministry his authority Because he wants us to know jesus the god of the universe Like the black preacher said I wonder if you know him I wonder if you know him A lot of people claim to know jesus, don't they?

Oh, I know jesus. Oh, yeah, I know jesus And you need to know him in a way That he rubs off on you Talked about it on wednesday night Never it was the apostle paul says I know whom I have believed And then persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him until that day I know whom I believe he didn't say I know what I believe and and believe me paul knew a lot more What's than we know right? I mean he wrote 13 epistles in the new testament. He didn't say I know what I believe He says I know whom I believe There's a lot of us who know what to believe But we don't know who We believe in big difference And we talked about it on wednesday night.

It's not about knowing him Informationally, it's not about knowing him intellectually. It's about knowing him Influentially that is he know him in such a way that he influences everything about your life. He rubs off on you To say that you know god means to say you know him in such a way that he alters changes transforms everything about your life That's how you know You know him We got lots of people who had some information about jesus They can write books about jesus because they got all this information accumulated in their minds But he doesn't affect the way they live Therefore they don't really truly know him In the biblical sense of the word They know about him The demons know all about the lord But they tremble Because they don't embrace him as messiah.

They don't embrace him as as redeemer and savior and son of god They don't embrace him for who he is See we as christians we embrace him We embrace his truth And that's the essence of what luke is saying in his gospel as he writes the exact truth To young theophilus that he might come to grips with the reality of the messiah You know my my great passion and desire is that you come to know jesus as messiah You come to know him intimately you come to know him better than you know. Anyone else or anything else So that your whole life is consumed with knowing him paul at the end of his life said that I may know him And the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings even at the end of his life He was saying I don't know him nearly enough Nearly enough I don't know him as I should we can never become complacent in our knowledge of god We can never come to the point in our life.

We say you know what? I I know enough about god because you can't he's incomprehensible And because he's incomprehensible he becomes to us irresistible And that's the way god should be for you. He should be absolutely irresistible. You can't wait to be with him You can't wait to know him. You can't wait to grab on to him You can't wait to hang on to every word that he says because that's a characteristic of someone who longs to know their god Is that you this morning There's a lot of people Who came to hear him?

But did not know him Let's look at those people today as you look at the popularity of jesus it says And he descended with them And stood on a level place and there was a great multitude of his disciples and a great throng of people now, how many people is that It's a great multitude and a great throng That's a lot of people remember john chapter 6 when he fed 5 000 men Remember, they only count the men.

So that's not counting the children and the women So we know that it was upwards of 20 to 25 000 people that he would feed with a few fishes and a few loaves of bread And so when we pick up the story in luke chapter, uh, six verse number 17 He has chosen his men. We know that he went up into a mountain to pray prayed all night He came down. He looked at the disciples He chose 12 of them and then luke names them for us and we describe them in great detail for you over the last several weeks And now he's descending a little lower with them and he meets up with a great multitude of disciples And a great throng of laos people nations very important Folks, let me tell you There are absolutely astonishing numbers That came to see jesus thousands upon thousands Upon thousands, we're not talking hundreds We're not talking a couple of thousand.

We are talking of upwards of 10 15 20 30 40 thousand people all over the place everybody in israel judea Jerusalem, even as far north as tyre and sidon came to see him To hear him to be healed by him He was the most popular ever to live You can't compare popularity today with the popularity of jesus During his earthly ministry and so we have three groups of people. Listen, we have the messengers number one Number two, we have the mixed multitude And number three, we have the many more multitude Okay, three groups of people we have the messengers the apostles the disciples We have the mixed multitude of disciples and then we have many more people three groups And you're one of those three groups this morning Let me describe them for you The bible says first of all That he descended with them.

That's the messengers That's the apostles that's the 12 we have just studied in great detail And so he came down with those men. Those those are his men. Those are his messengers Those are the preachers in training. Those will be the ones who carry the gospel to the next generation They will be the beginners of the church. They will be the ones who lay the foundation of the church They will be the ones who will carry the gospel literally around the globe Those are his men. Those are his messengers the preachers in training And he comes down with him.

The bible says this That he stood on a level Place and this is what some commentators would distinguish this sermon in luke 6 Differently from the sermon in matthews 5 6 and 7 Virtually the same things are said But this they say was spoken from a plane And that in matthew 5 was spoken from a mount So some commentators would differ and say this was a different sermon than matthews 5 6 and 7 You know, i'm not going to debate that fact because it's virtually the same thing He says over in the gospel of matthew, but he stands on a level place because there are so many people coming To hear him coming to be healed by him coming to have demons cast out of him But the the record is brief Matthew's accounts a little longer Matthew tells us about how many people were coming to him and how he healed them all and that's what he did Because that's the kind of ministry that christ had But he comes down with his men.

He has chosen them. He has hand-picked them. They are the future of the ministry He comes down stands on a level place and as he comes everybody was pushing against him They all wanted to touch him Now I I can't imagine being that that popular I don't know if you you've ever been popular or not Maybe when you're in high school, you were you know, byoc or bmoc or b something oc I don't know you were one of the popular ones on campus and everybody wanted to hang around Hang around with you or whatever, but you know, we can't relate to everybody wanting to to touch you to hear you To feel you to be touched by you But they came to him Because they all wanted a piece of the messiah And so he he comes down with his men And he as he comes down the bible says that There was a great multitude of his disciples.

Now. This is important. You need to understand this. This is a mixed multitude These are people who were Curious about the lord These were these were these were some of the learners that christ had Some who would come and and they would begin to gain information about the messiah Talk about knowing god not informationally and not intellectually but Influentially, these are people who came to gather some information about the messiah. They were learners. They were students of the messiah It doesn't mean that they were all saved How do we know that in john chapter 6 when christ was preaching?

He was talking to some of his disciples and saying to them unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood You have no part with me in other words unless you internalize all that I am And all that I say embrace all that I am for who I am You will have no part with me and they some of them thought it was too hard of saying for them And so john chapter 6 many of those disciples departed and walked with him no more See just because you're a disciple Doesn't mean that you are a true believer a true christian because the disciple is a is a technical term for learner Okay for student and jesus was a great rabbi He had many students and many learners people who wanted to hear from him and know from him And yet we know from john chapter 6 that when he spoke harsh words Many of that multitude of those disciples turn around and walk with him No more Over in john john chapter 2 The bible says these words in john chapter 2 verse number 23 Now when he was in jerusalem at the passover during the feast many believed in his name Whoa, wow, that means many people are getting saved because they believe in jesus Not so fast read on it says Beholding the signs which he was doing they believed in his name because he was doing great signs great wonders but Jesus verse 24 on his part Was not entrusting himself to them For he knew all men and because he did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man For he himself knew what was in man So all these people getting on the jesus bandwagon Believing in him because he did all these marvelous miracles and saying man.

This guy is wonderful. I believe in jesus But jesus wasn't entrusting himself to them because he knew their selfish motive He knew their hearts weren't committed to him as true messiah true spiritual messiah true king of israel They were only there for a short while See, that's the great thing about the lord. He knows What's in your heart? I don't have to know that In fact, that's not really important to me What's important is that god knows? What's in your heart right he knows what's there And he knows whether or not you're one of the the throng of people that that just believe in him For all the things he might do for you But jesus knows what's in your heart And that's why on that day in matthew chapter 7 many will say well lord Did we not prophesy in your name?

Did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we not do many marvelous deeds in your name and christ says depart from me.

I never knew you See, it's not so much important that you know. God. It's that he knows you see We ask people. Do you know jesus wrong question? You should ask him. Does jesus know you? See, that's the question Because there are a lot of people who believe in jesus But he does not know them Because he did not entrust himself To them because he knew what was in their heart. That's why over in john chapter 8 verse number 32 says this or verse 30 says this As he spoke these things many came to believe in him verse 31 Jesus therefore was saying to those jews who had believed him If you abide in my word, then you are truly Disciples of mine and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free if you Abide in me if you remain in me and my words remain in you then you are Mafetis alethos you are a true Disciple of mine.

In other words, you are a true believer of mine How do you know you're a true disciple of christ the words of christ abide in you? They remain in you and you abide and remain in him Simple as that So christ clarified that for us And so christ comes down descends from a hilltop with his men to a level place And in that level place there is a mixed multitude of disciples And these people were at various parts points in their lives spiritually a lot a lot like people in the church today There are different parts Or different points in their life spiritually with god some More committed some less committed some looking to see if they want to be committed But all under the category of disciple because they are learners they are students They see christ as their rabbi and they want to learn from him.

It doesn't mean that they are saved Every christian in the bible is a true disciple But every disciple is not necessarily a true christian You must make that distinction as you read through the gospels as you read through specifically the gospel of john And you see it clearly distinguished in the gospel of acts Okay, because the true believers in acts were truly disciples. They weren't even called christians till antioch They were always called disciples followers of christ followers of the way That's who they were Until they decided to call them christians, which was a term of derision.

It wasn't a complementary term Oh, wow, you guys are christians. Oh, it was a term of derision their little christs Followers of christ. Those are christians big difference and so you have The messengers and then you have a mixed multitude and then you have the many more The many more a great throng of people From all judea Jerusalem and the coastal region of tyre and sidon. How far is that? That's about 170 to 200 miles in length That's a lot of a lot of miles to cover Now if I wanted to go see jesus, I couldn't hop and hop in the bus And go down to see jesus.

I couldn't take a plane. I couldn't hop in my car I had to walk If I wanted to hear jesus, I had to go walk to hear him if I wanted to see him I had to go walk to see him So if i'm going to go see jesus, it's going to take a long time to get there And when I get there, i'm just not going to turn around and go back home again It's going to take me a while to get there and if i'm going to take a while to get there Then I want to stay there with him That's why he would feed the 5 000 men and the 4 000 men on various occasions in the scriptures Because people had come from great distances and they would be hungry And they wouldn't come just for the day.

They'd come for the week. They'd come for the month They'd come for two months They'd come to be around this messiah and watch him do all these marvelous miracles and watch him do what it is He does hear him preach And they would come from tyre and sidon Well, that's that's phoenicia. That's that's the modern day lebanon today. It's a long walk These were pagan people These were unbelieving people These weren't christians. These were pagan gentile from corrupt cities tyre and sidon And it says that those people came To hear and see jesus See the popularity of christ Whether you were a true disciple or not Whether you were pagan or not There was great fascination with the messiah They were curious Well, who is this jesus?

Who is the guy that does all these mir? I gotta I gotta see this I'm gonna take a four five six seven day journey and i'll spend some time with this guy to make sure he is real I want to see him So they would they gathered their families together and make the journey And they for the most part were curious Fascinated by the stories that they had heard and they wanted to hear more and they wanted to see more That was the popularity of jesus And luke wants us to understand that Because he's going to show you how that popularity will go like this Very very high and then just all of a sudden just Drop right off Why?

Because when they heard the message They had wanted nothing to do with the message that he preached. They loved his miracles They loved that they thought that was great They loved what he could do for them but when he began to preach about the the the the kingdom principles and and to preach about what it is to To to get to heaven that they they weren't interested in any of that stuff And soon they would cry That he would be killed Because he spoke so much against their sinful lifestyles But why would they come?

Why would thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people? gather in israel in In judea in jerusalem someplace in the northern part of galilee, why is it all these people would come and gather? That's because of the power of jesus His popularity was because of his power. Listen to what the text says It says this it says That we came to the level place There was a great multitude of his disciples great throng of people from all judea and jerusalem and the coastal region of tyre and sidon Who had come?

to what To hear him They come to hear him That's important They wanted to hear what he had to say the power of jesus over the mental faculties of man was incredible The power of jesus over the physical Aspect of man is incredible as well as the spiritual aspect of man and luke paints for us All three the mental the physical and the spiritual they came to hear him Others came to be healed by him. That's the physical And others came because they had demons and that's the spiritual that's the soul of a man Because luke wants to show you listen carefully luke wants to paint a picture listen of heaven It's a picture of heaven Where mentally everybody's right?

That'd be good because for the most part mentally we're not right Physically, everybody's right and spiritually in the soul of man. Everybody is absolutely perfect He's going to picture to us heaven. Remember when christ came he was a king right the kingdom of heaven He preached was at hand Well, what's the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of heaven is the sphere of rule where jesus the king rules So when he comes he shows us the kingdom He shows us the kingdom in all of its glory because he's the king and that's how we know that jesus Literally banished all disease from the land of israel Upon the time of the death of jesus everybody for the most part had been healed Everybody was well And that's what makes the sermon so important in luke 6 verse number 20 Because after all that jesus does for you he wants you to understand that you can be physically well But be spiritually dead You can have everything about you doing really really good every bodily part functioning really well You've seen well walking well hearing well talking well Doing all those things really really good But if you don't know the lord and your heart's not well You'll die in your sins Because christ can heal you physically but guess what?

You're still going to die right You can have cancer pray for god to heal you god heal you but I got bad news for you You're still going to die. You might not die of cancer You might be in a car accident going home from the hospital But you are still going to die because it's appointed that man wants to die So christ can heal you physically, but you're still going to die But if he heals you spiritually He heals your heart Death is a doorway to eternal life with god forever and when you die You need to know where you're going and so Luke is painting the picture of heaven All these people came and it says they came to hear him Well, they've got to hear him because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god, right?

And so the word of god Teaches man His true condition He comes to release man from a sin. He comes to to give them peace joy heaven He talks about hell and damnation and forgiveness. They they wanted a miracle, but they needed to hear the truth And they wanted to hear this man that everybody was speaking about because Matthew's account says never a man spoke Like this man spoke Nobody speaks like jesus Because he always speaks truth He does it Not from a selfish motive, but from an unselfish motive he speaks Absolute truth.

So no no man ever spoke like this man ever spoke And so they came To hear hear him Because he's after their minds He's after their minds He's after what they understand him to be They must understand that he truly is messiah and by the way The messiah is still your teacher today First timothy 6 first three says this If anyone advocates A different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words those of our lord.

Jesus christ these words right here and with the doctrine Conforming to godliness in other words if someone comes into your presence and doesn't agree with these words The words that conform a man or woman to godliness He is conceited and understands listen Nothing You ever been to church where the preacher never opens the bible? The bible says he's conceited and knows nothing You ever been to church where they talk about all these illustrations and all these stories everybody laughs and has a good time But they don't open the sound words that conform to godliness The bible says that's a conceited man.

He's an arrogant man and he knows What? Something no, he knows nothing zero zilch nada I'm bilingual see that He didn't know anything And he goes on to say This words, but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words out of which arise then to be strife abusive language evil suspicions and Constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth who suppose that religion is a means of gain Those kind of people that tell you lots of stories and gets you to laugh but never open the bible all in it for personal gain Religion is a personal gain to them It's not about the truth Because the truth is the sound words spoken to you by god.

He's the teacher. I'm not your teacher God's your teacher And these are the words that he gives And that's how you judge the preacher you judge the preacher and the teacher based on the sound words that god gives and so christ comes And he comes down the hill stands on a level plane people come because they want to hear him They want to hear something what's this guy got to say and others come because they want to be healed by him They want to be healed by him That's what it says They came to be healed of their diseases Let me tell you something about the miracles of christ.

They were creative miracles He had a bad eye. He gave you a brand new eye He had a withered hand. He gave you a brand new hand You had a uh, uh, you were paralyzed he gave you a brand new body Everything was new No hearing gave you a brand new ear And he created everything out of what nothing Because that's how god creates he creates out of nothing, right? And so so what god did is he the the power that he had unprecedented Unparalleled it's it's it's it's it goes beyond anything. We can imagine power to be Someone comes and they can't walk and christ says take up your bed and walk.

They take up their bed. They walk I'm paralyzed for 38 years They walk People have been blind from birth john chapter 9. They're blind from birth. They've never seen the light of the day They never saw their mother never saw their father never saw their family never saw their friends never saw anybody and christ says be healed Wash in a pool of silo.

They go they wash they clean they see perfectly perfectly because And people ask why did christ, you know Take the the dirt and make mud out of spit in it make mud and put on the man's eyes because he wanted to show his creative power That man was formed out of the dust of the ground And when god made man out of the dust of the ground, he gave him everything perfect And when god healed the man he made his eyes perfect It's the power of god that can't be healed by him. I mean if you were sick during the time of jesus What would you do?

Would you go to the physician next door I wouldn't I'd go see jesus all the doctors were put out of business for three and a half years They had no income. What would they do? Because jesus would heal everybody And they would go to him to be healed to touch him. The bible says this word and all the multitudes were trying to touch him For power was coming out from him and healing them all All not some not certain ones not those who had quote faith to believe right Healed them all people from tyre and sidon the pagans healed them all all of them Because of who he is And it says that not only did he come to deal with man's mental faculties and physical faculties But also the spiritual faculties It says that and those who are troubled with unclean spirits were being cured Luke says he gave perfect mind perfect body perfect soul When you get to heaven perfect mind perfect body Perfect soul.

This is the kingdom This is the king presenting the kingdom in luke 6 20. He gives the kingdom principles What does a child look like who lives in the kingdom right because he's the king He will overrule the kingdom of israel. He is the one who sets the rules for the kingdom And so he wants people to get a glimpse of what the kingdom is going to look like perfect mind perfect body perfect soul And everybody who touched him was healed Imagine that the power And and and and and the voices of people who had been sick all their lives or demon-possessed and the voices of praise and the voices that they would Scream and yell and and just oh, thank you lord.

Just the the overwhelming sense of of gratitude They must have had Because he healed them all He healed them all this past week Last week I was out to dinner with one of our elders and We decided to go and visit Uh, dorothy sander cederhoff. She's in one of the care units here in glendora And I had seen her a couple of months ago and we had carried on a conversation She and I about You know her conversion her life and all the things that had taken place and where she was and what was doing She had all these pictures up on the on the curtain there in her room and we talked about you know Her wedding dress from years ago what looked like and how much more beautiful she was now In her 90s than she was when she got married, you know, 70 years ago, and we talked about all those It was just a wonderful conversation So we went to go see her this week because the doctors had not given her very long to live So I went in to stand by her bedside And to look at her reminded me of sins effects It's important that a man wants to die I'm reminiscent of the of the words of jesus when he wept over the tomb of lazarus because of the effects of sin on the body God said eat the tree you'll die And yes adam and eve died spiritually that day But now they would die physically because of that spiritual death And man has been dying ever since And dorothy could not respond So I just reached over the bed and looked into her eyes and not whether she can see me or not hear me or not I don't know Just grabbed a hold of her hand and and and she was just you know, she's getting so close to death And I said dorothy.

Let me tell you something. You know where you're going And let me tell you what the bible says in john 14 about christ talking to his men about where he was going How he was building a mansion for him and so I quoted john 14 And then I said, you know the bible says in philippians 1 that it's a that to die Is gain to live to live for christ is great, but to die is gain And I will let you know dorothy you're going to have a life of great gain You'll have a perfect body Perfect mind Perfect soul Right now you don't But you will That's what you have to look forward to and you know dorothy you'll be in heaven before me You'll be there to see the lord before me You'll be perfect before me You'll have it all before me You are so blessed So blessed We prayed with her and then we left How long she has no one knows But you know what christ does perfect body perfect soul Perfect mind So what's the conclusion The conclusion is simple this what group are you?

What group are you are you among the fascinated are you among the faithful the group of the of the throng of the great throng of people That were fascinated to hear jesus They wanted to be healed by jesus. They wanted to see others healed by jesus They wanted to see others who had demons cast out of them. They were just fascinated They were curious about who he was and maybe you're one of those people You're curious You're here today because your parents brought you you're here today because your your wife or your husband brought you you're here today because Uh out of some kind of duty or obligation you're here But you know, you're you're you're among the great throng of people in the world today Who are fascinated with jesus?

You might even like jesus And so you want to hear what he has to say But you've never committed your life to christ Or maybe you're among the other multitude the mixed multitude of disciples You're a learner you you you want to learn about jesus and you go to church to to get some information about him You you go to church because you want to somehow know more about this messiah and who he is And and so you might even claim to be a disciple of christ You've been in the church for 5 10 15 years and you you look like a follower of christ I mean you take good notes You learn you learn you know more today than you did five years ago when you were here And and everything is going well, but but when push comes to shove and there's a there's a commitment to be made like john 6 The words are just too tough and you you have to turn and and walk away Not that you physically turn and walk away, but you know, you just don't embrace the truth You you hear the word of god You're preached and you're spoken but but you don't want to you don't want to cross over that line of commitment Or are you among the men who are truly disciples of the lord jesus christ Committed to preaching and teaching the truth about who he is I would pray that you're that category you're you're you're more than just fascinated.

You're faithful You're more than just Sitting around listening you you are committed to christ as lord of your life And you want to serve him with all your heart I pray that that's where you're at That you're not a part of the people who who come and and sit and listen and and and he hears some good stories and and and are kind of just taken back by jesus, but You don't want to commit yourself to him I pray that that's not you that you are solely committed to christ in all that he has because of who he is the great god of the universe Who perfectly restores?

Both mind body and soul And one day we'll do yours as he promised in his word. Let's pray father. We thank you for today You are so good so great the compassion that you had for people Knowing what was in their hearts that they were pagans and not going to commit to you yet you healed them all Because you loved them so Your compassion is beyond comprehension Your greatness is beyond understanding Your love Can't even begin Begin to be understood by us And that's who you were that's who you are And we thank you for the saving power of your grace And I pray lord for the salvation of any one individual this morning Who might be in this room who's never given their life to christ that today would be the day of their salvation They might experience a relationship with the living god And be a true disciple of his because your words Abide in him and he abides in you pray in jesus name.

Amen