Jesus was scaring his disciples

JESUS WAS SCARING HIS DISCIPLES
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Luke 9:44-4544"Listencarefullyto what I am about
to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be delivered
into the hands of men." 45But they did not understand
what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they
did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about
it.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Prediction Of His Passion
Mark 9:30-32. Parallelpassages:Matthew 17:22, 23; Luke 9:43-45
J.J. Given
I. SECRECY. "To everything there is a season, anda time to every purpose
under heaven." Every man has a work to do, and a time allowedhim to do it
in. Every man, moreover, is immortal till that work is done, and God's will
with him accomplished. In like manner there was a time allotted for our
Lord's missionon earth. There was a time fixed for his ministry of mercy to
man. When the fullness of the time was come, he made his descentinto our
world; when the work he came to do was done, and when the proper period
againarrived, he took his departure from our world. The appointed interval
of his sojourn on earth no enemy could shorten by one day, no power could
abridge it by a single hour; nothing could interfere with it, so long as "his

hour was not yet come." Yet, notwithstanding this, our Lord never neglected
the use of such means as were proper for the prolongationof his stay on earth
till his greatwork should be performed, and the destined period completed.
Accordingly, we find him at one time returning to Galilee, and "walking no
more in Jewry, because Jews soughtto kill him." Afterward, when Herod's
attention had been directed to him, and his abode even in Galilee had thus
become somewhatinsecure, we find him withdrawing to the more remote and
less populous districts of that province. We are, moreover, informed that
subsequently he had gone yet further from contactwith his enemies, passing
beyond Galilee into the Phoenicianterritory. This he did in order, it would
seem, to escape observation, for while there he "entered into an house, and
would have no man know it: but he could not be hid." This course our Lord
pursued for various reasons. While eachparticular occasiononwhich he
courted privacy had its own specific reason, we canstate in generalthe
motives that seemto have influenced him in this direction. As already
intimated, he avoided such publicity as would bring him into hostile conflict
with his enemies, so as to precipitate the crisis, and hastenhis death, before
the proper and purposed period. Again he sought seclusion, now for required
rest, oftener for more time and better opportunity of instructing his apostles
for their future work and important mission. But while our Lord thus sought
seclusionto prevent any interference either with the space of his ministry or
with the plan of instructing his apostles, there was another eventuality which
he carefully avoided, namely, any attempt on the part of the people to make
him a king; as, after the miracle of feeding the five thousand, we read that,
"when Jesus perceivedthat they would come and take him by force, to make
him a king, he departed againinto a mountain himself alone." This was no
very improbable contingency. In a moment of excitement, under the influence
of enthusiasm, yielding to the impulse of popular feeling, they might attempt
to place him at the head of a rebellion, if not a revolution, againstexisting
authorities, and try to restore to Israelthe temporal kingdom which Israelso
ardently, though mistakenly, sought. This would have been a result greatly to
be deprecated. It would have left a stigma on the Savior's name, and causeda
suspicionabout his design, both of which would have been most detrimental to
the interests of that spiritual kingdom - the kingdom "not of this world,"
which he came to set up. Accordingly, we find that when he had restoredthe

deaf mute, he chargedthem that "they should tell no man." Again, when he
cured the blind man at Bethsaida, he sent him away to his house, saying,
"Neithergo into the town, nor tell it to any in the town " - any townsmenhe
might chance to meet on his way home. Also, after the Transfiguration, "he
chargedthem that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the
Son of man were risen from the dead." And now that they passedalong
(παρεπορεύοντο)through Galilee, "he would not that any man should know
it." Even an apparent exceptionis easily accountedfor: nor is there any real
discrepancybetweenthe injunction he laid on them after the restorationof
the deafmute (ch. 7.). He to "tell no man," and the direction he gave the
demoniac (ch. 5.). He to "go home to thy friends, and tell them how great
things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassiononthee." No
doubt it was the same district of Decapolis where both commands were given:
but on the latter occasionour Lord was about to leave the district in question,
so that there was no risk of his ministry being obstructed by the matter being
blazoned abroad; on the former occasionhe was going to tarry for a time in
the same region, and hence he resorts to the precautionnecessaryunder
circumstances whichwere thus quite different.
II. HE FORETELLS HIS DEATH. There were three great epochs in our
Lord's ministry. The first was that of miracles, by which he attestedthe
divinity of his mission; the secondwas that of parables, by which he developed
the nature of his kingdom; and the third was that of suffering, by which he
made satisfactionfor the sins of his people. The miracles beganwith that at
Cana;the parables, properly so called, began somewhere aboutthe
commencementof the last year of the Savior's work and ministry. Though his
parabolic teaching beganat this period to assume a more formal shape, he
had all along employed on certain occasions parabolic utterances ofa briefer
sort. Thus, for example, in the sermon on the mount the agreementwith one's
adversary there recommendedis of the nature of parable; the similitude of the
wise and foolishbuilders, with which that sermon closes, is still more
distinctly parabolic; while subsequently, and before the beginning of his
regular method of strictly parabolic instruction, we find such proverbial or
brief parabolic representations as that of the new patch and the old garment,

and that of the new wine and the old bottles, Besides that of the creditor and
the two debtors. Still, from the period indicated, his teaching by parables
became more frequent and methodical The reasons ofour Lord's adopting
this method are such as the following: -
1. The harmony existing betweenthe kingdom of nature and that of grace,
and the similarity in their laws of development.
2. The adaptation to our nature of the historicalelement, real or ideal,
containedin them.
3. The amount of truth communicable in this wayto the dull apprehension of
the disciples.
4. Their helpfulness to memory by linking the spiritual truth to some familiar
natural object, the frequent occurrence ofthe latter always suggesting the
former; and:
5. A judicial Veiling of the truth because of pastdulness and indifference. The
constanttheme of his teaching henceforth consists ofhis sufferings and death,
as is implied in the imperfect tense (ἐδίδασκε. He "he kept teaching")here
used.
III. PREVIOUS INTIMITATIONS ON THE SUBJECT. The previous
intimations had been obscure. There had been the intimation of the Baptist
when he pointed the Savior out as "the Lamb of God, which takethaway the
sin of the world" (John 1:29). He and in the repetition of part of the same at
ver. 36. He had himself given severalfigurative intimations of it, as when he

spake of his death by violence, and his resurrectionin three days under the
similitude of the demolition and rebuilding of a temple. "Destroy," he said,
"this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." This had occurredat the
celebrationof the first Passoverafterthe commencementof his public
ministry. Again, in his discourse with Nicodemus, he representedhis
crucifixion as an uplifting, and its beneficial effects by a comparisonwith
Moses'lifting up the serpent in the wilderness, whenthe bitten Israelite
lookedand lived. Another intimation of his death, and the first allusion to that
event recordedin this Gospel(St. Mark's). He is the removal of the
bridegroom, of which he said, "The days will come, when the bridegroom
shall be taken awayfrom them" (Mark 2:20; Matthew 9:15). Also, after the
feeding of the five thousand, in the synagogue ofCapernaum he made a
reference to it in the words, "The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I
will give for the life of the world." But the first clearand distinct declaration
is that of the preceding chapter (ch. 8.) He when "he beganto teachthem, that
the Sonof man must suffer many things, and be rejectedof the elders, and of
the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again."
IV. SIMILAR DECLARATIONS IN THE PRESENT AND SUBSEQUENT
CHAPTERS. The first public, or at leastthe first direct and unreserved
announcement of his sufferings, death, and resurrection, was made, as
recordedin the preceding chapter, after the disciples had been convincedof,
and Peterhad confessed, his Messiahship, saying, "Thouart the Christ." On
that occasionwe learn from the fuller report of St. Matthew that our Lord
warmly commended Peter's confession, but soonafter, as both St. Matthew
and St. Mark inform us, found cause to condemn his indiscreet and
unwelcome rebuke. The commendation is contained in the words, "I sayalso
unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church."
The latter clause of the promise just cited has, as is well known, excited no
little controversy, and called forth a variety of interpretations.

1. Augustine will have it that the rock on which the Church is built, according
to the Savior's promise, is Christ himself.
2. Chrysostommaintains that the confessionof faith in Christ, that Peterhad
just given utterance to, is the rock on which the Church is based. We admit
the show of reasonand the plausibility with which both opinions have been
expressedand enforced; still we cannotconcur in either. Chrysostom's
explanation is chargeable with overlooking the context. So to some extent,
though less so, is that of Augustine; but the latter rests, besides, ona very
doubtful distinction betweentwo words which are frequently used in classical
writers as interchangeable. According to this interpreter its import would be,
"Thou art Peter(πέτρος) a small stone;but I am Christ, a strong Rock
(πέτρα). He and on this Rock, that is, myself, I will build my Church." In the
Aramaic there is one word (Kipho) for Peterand for rock, just as in French
there is one word for both - Pierre, Peter, a man's name, and pierre, a stone or
rock. But in Greek there are the two words alreadymentioned, viz. πέτρος
and πέτρα. He so that in this play upon the word there is a slight variation in
the Greek, without, however, real difference of meaning. Even admitting the
distinction betweenthe two words, which has been questioned, if not entirely
disproved, the explanation is evidently forced. We require to look more closely
at the context as furnished by the eighteenth verse itself, and by the sixteenth.
As recorded in the latter, Peter's answerwas, "Thouart the Christ, the Sonof
the living God." Our Lord, after expressing approval of Peter's reply, and
assuring him that the truth contained in it was the outcome, not of human
discovery, but of Divine revelation, takes occasionto state another and no less
important truth, and that in a form accommodatedto the statement of Peter,
"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter[πέτρος. He a rock], and upon
this rock (πέτρα) I will build my Church;" that is to say, - You have made a
goodand true confessionin acknowledging my Messiahshipand divinity; I
also, in my turn, will confess whatI have in store for you in connectionwith
my Church.

3. Your name is significant - it means a rock; and according to your name will
be the nature of your work. With the foundation of the Church you will have
much to do. On your preaching of the faith which you have just professedits
foundation shall be laid. Similarly, elsewherewe read that the Church is
"built on the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being
the chief Corner-stone;" whereas apostlesandprophets are only the
foundation in so far as they themselves, knit togetherwith and cementedto
Christ, lay the foundation by their exhibition of Christ and declarationof the
truth concerning Christ. It is as though our Lord had said to Peter, Among
Jews and Gentiles your work is appointed you. Among the Jews on the day of
Pentecostyour proclamation of the selfsame faith, which you have just
confessed, will lay the foundation of the Christian Church; while to Cornelius
the same gospelpreachedby you will inaugurate a similar blessedresult
among the Gentiles, introducing the first-fruits of the Gentile world into the
Church. Still more, to the united Church of the believing Jew and converted
Gentile I shall promise and provide security from all the devices of the most
wily, and all the assaults ofthe most Satanic, foes.
V. WHY IS THIS COMMENDATION OMITTED BYST. MARK? It has
often been remarked that many things redounding solely to the honor of St.
Peterare omitted by St. Mark;while at the same time his infirmities are fully
and faithfully recordedby the same evangelist, extenuating circumstances
being less noticed by this evangelistthan by the other synoptists. An example
of this is furnished in the case before us. The blessing pronounced on him
because ofthis noble and brave confessionofthe Christ, the Divine origin of
his knowledge andfaith, the promise just considered, and the further promise
of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, are all omitted by St. Mark. But the
rebuke to which he soonafter subjectedhimself is carefully recorded. Many
instances of both kinds occur. This is one of those incidental circumstances
that go far to confirm the voice of history in regardto the relation in which St.
Peterstoodto St. Mark and his Gospel, namely, that the latter penned his
Gospel, as disciple and by the dictation, to soma extent, of the former. If so,
and we think it extremely probable, we have proof herein of the veracity of
the one and the humility of the other.

VI. REPETITIONOF THE PREDICTION. Reverting to the subjectof the
Savior's sufferings, so plainly announced in the eighth chapter, we have a
repetition of a similar announcement in this ninth chapter, and another,
again, in nearly the same terms in the tenth chapter. These repeatedas well as
direct and unreserved declarations on this subject - a subject so distasteful
and saddening to his disciples - show their unwillingness to associate the idea
of death with the Messiah, their tenacity in clinging to a temporal king and
worldly kingdom, their slownessand lothness to apprehend or acceptthe
notion of a spiritual, unworldly kingdom. The idea of a suffering Messiahhas,
therefore, to be dinned into their ears and impressedon their hearts by
frequent and earnestreiterations. Norhas this subject lost aught of its
importance or interest even for ourselves and at the present day; while the
faithful inculcation of it is as much a duty and a necessitynow as when our
Lord in person urged it so solemnly and so often on the mind and heart of his
sorrowing disciples. Thoughthe cross was a stumbling-block to the Jews, and
foolishness to the Greeks,it is still the power of God, and the wisdom of God,
to the salvationof every believer. The way to the crownis still by, and only by,
the cross;humiliation precedes glorification. The preacherof the gospel
cannot dwell too frequently or too earnestlyon a theme that bulked so largely
in the sight of the Saviorhimself. The doctrine of Christ's suffering for us to
put awayour sins - suffering, "the just for the unjust, to bring us to God" -
cannot be too much insisted on; neither can we be too often instructed in the
duty of giving ourselves fully, freely, and for ever to him "who loved us and
gave himself for us." If, moreover, Christ was "obedientunto death, even the
death of the cross," inall its shame and with all its pain, it surely behoves us,
in daily, holy obedience, to take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow him. -
J.J.G.

Biblical Illustrator
The Son of Man shall be delivered.
Luke 9:44
Repeatedpredictions
J. Thomson, D. D.
As the time of our Saviour's death was approaching, He thought proper to
repeatthe prophecy of it againand again. Forthis various reasons may be
assigned.
1. It was necessaryto show that the death of Christ was an appointed as well
as an important event in the plan of Divine providence.
2. It tended to prove that it was voluntary on the part of Jesus, and not the
debt of nature, as it is on the part of those who are merely human.
3. It was necessaryfor the fulfilment of ancient prophecy, and consequently to
prove that Jesus was the predicted Messiah.

4. It was requisite to show that He was a prophet in the highest sense ofthe
word, and that not a part, but the whole future dispensationwas thoroughly
known to Him.
5. The frequent repetition of the prophecy of His death tended also to prepare
the minds of the disciples for what might otherwise have overwhelmed them.
(J. Thomson, D. D.)
COMMENTARIES
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
9:43-50 This prediction of Christ's sufferings was plain enough, but the
disciples would not understand it, because it agreednot with their notions. A
little child is the emblem by which Christ teaches us simplicity and humility.
What greaterhonour canany man attain to in this world, than to be received
by men as a messengerofGod and Christ; and to have God and Christ own
themselves receivedand welcomedin him! If ever any societyof Christians in
this world, had reasonto silence those not of their own communion, the twelve
disciples at this time had; yet Christ warned them not to do the like again.
Those may be found faithful followers ofChrist, and may be acceptedofhim,
who do not follow with us.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
It was hid from them - They had imbibed the common notions of the Jews that
he was to be a prince and a conqueror, to deliver the nation. They could not
understand how that could be, if he was soonto be delivered into the hands of
his enemies to die. In this way it was hid from them - not by God, but by their

previous false belief. And from this we may learn that the plainest truths of
the Bible are unintelligible to many because they have embraced some belief
or opinion before which is erroneous, and which they are unwilling to
abandon. The proper way of reading the Bible is to lay aside all previous
opinions and submit entirely to God. The apostles should have supposedthat
their previous notions of the Messiahwere wrong, and should have renounced
them. They should have believed that what Jesus "then" saidwas consistent
with his being the Christ. So "we" should believe that "all" that God says is
consistentwith truth, and should forsake allother opinions.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
45. and they feared—"insomuchthat they feared." Their most cherishedideas
were so completely dashed by such announcements, that they were afraid of
laying themselves open to rebuke by asking Him any questions.
Matthew Poole's Commentary
See Poole on"Luke 9:37"
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
But they understood not this saying,.... Whatwas meant by being betrayed
into the hands of men, and by his being put to death; they knew not, how these
things could possibly be, for they could not by any means reconcile them with
the notions they had of a temporal Redeemer, and victorious Messiah:
and it was hid from them, that they perceivedit not; the true meaning of this
saying was hid from their understanding, which was veiled with the above
notion of the worldly grandeur of the Messiah, that they did not take it in;
and they fearedto ask him of that saying, of the meaning of it; imagining that
he had a secretmysticalmeaning in it, which they could not reach;lest he
should reproachthem with their dulness and stupidity; or should rebuke them
with the like sharpness and severityhe had reproved Peternot long ago, upon
the same head.

Geneva Study Bible
But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they
perceivedit not: and they fearedto ask him of that saying.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
5. shake offthe very dust from your feet] See Acts 13:51; Acts 18:6.
45. they understood not] This ignorance and incapacity, so humbly avowed,
should be contrastedwith the boldness and fulness of their subsequent
knowledge as one of the strongestproofs of the change wrought in them by the
Resurrectionand the Descentof the Holy Spirit.
Bengel's Gnomen
Luke 9:45. Αἴσθωνται, that they perceivedit not) Ἐπίγνωσις, knowing a thing,
or understanding it (referring to ἠγνόουν), produces αἴσθησις, sense, or
perception and feeling of it: when the former is wanting, the latter is
necessarilyso.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 45. - And they feared to ask him of that saying. The "saying" was to
them so utterly distasteful, perhaps inconceivable. It is possible that they
thought this betrayal and death simply veiled for them some bit of teaching to
be explained hereafter;it is possible they at once dismissedit from their
minds, as men often do painful and mournful forebodings. At all events, they
dreaded asking him any questions about this dark future of suffering which
he said lay before him.

PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
BRUCE HURT MD
Luke 9:44 "Let these words sink into your ears;for the Sonof Man is going to
be delivered into the hands of men.
KJV Let these sayings sink down into your ears:for the Sonof man shall be
delivered into the hands of men.
these words Lk 1:66; 2:19,51;Isaiah32:9,10;John 16:4; 1 Thessalonians
3:3,4; Hebrews 2:1; 12:2-5
for the Son of Man Lk 9:22; 18:31;24:6,7,44;Matthew 16:21;17:22,23;
20:18,19;21:38,39;26:2; Mark 8:31; 9:31; John 2:19-22;19:11; Acts 2:23;
3:13-15;4:27,28
into 2 Samuel 24:14
Luke 9 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Luke 9:37-45 - StevenCole
Luke 9:37-45 An Addendum of Faith - John MacArthur
Luke 9:43-45 The Amazing Personof Christ - John MacArthur
JESUS PREDICTSHIS PASSION
Luke 9:44-45
Similar predictions in Matthew and Mark

Matthew 17:22 And while they were gathering togetherin Galilee, Jesus said
to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men;
Mark 9:31 For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, “The Son of
Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when
He has been killed, He will rise three days later.”
Let these words sink into your ears - "Place these words into your ears," is an
idiom which means to pay very close attention. Keep the context in mind.
What had been the response ofthe crowds? Theywere amazed and marveled
at Jesus'powerof the demon that had exerted such a violent effecton the boy.
"The disciples are setin contrastto the generalpublic who did no more than
wonder at the miracles." (Morris)Jesus now draws his disciples back to
reality, for these same crowds would in a short time be crying to Pilate
"Crucify! Crucify!" Their praise and adulation was shot-lived and fickle.
Mattoon- In the midst of their amazement (Lk 9:43), He interrupts them with
a sobering statement. He tells them that He would be scourged, condemned,
punished, or "delivered" into the hands of men in spite of His power. They
did not, however, understand what the Lord was trying to tell them and they
did not press the issue to inquire further.
NET Note adds "The meaning is either "do not forget these words" or "Listen
carefully to these words". See also Ex17:14. For a variation of this expression,
see Luke 8:8."

Wiersbe - took the Twelve aside for another lessonaboutthe cross. After all, it
was at the cross that Jesus wouldgive Satanthat final blow of defeat (John
12:31-32;Col. 2:15).
For (gar) explains why they neededto let the words sink in (see term of
explanation).
The Son of Man - This term was usedfrequent by Ezekielto describe the
prophet himself, but Daniel used Sonof Man to refer to a prophecy of the
Messiah(see below). In the NT Sonof Man is used in 84 verses the majority
referring to Jesus. Sonof Man was Jesus'favorite description of Himself. By
using the phrase "of Man" Jesus demonstrates His compassionate willingness
to identify with fallen mankind.
Son of Man- Matt. 8:20; Matt. 9:6; Matt. 10:23; Matt. 11:19;Matt. 12:8;
Matt. 12:32;Matt. 12:40;Matt. 13:37; Matt. 13:41; Matt. 16:13;Matt. 16:27;
Matt. 16:28;Matt. 17:9; Matt. 17:12;Matt. 17:22;Matt. 18:11; Matt. 19:28;
Matt. 20:18;Matt. 20:28;Matt. 24:27; Matt. 24:30; Matt. 24:37;Matt. 24:39;
Matt. 24:44;Matt. 25:31;Matt. 26:2; Matt. 26:24;Matt. 26:45; Matt. 26:64;
Mk. 2:10; Mk. 2:28; Mk. 8:31; Mk. 8:38; Mk. 9:9; Mk. 9:12; Mk. 9:31; Mk.
10:33;Mk. 10:45;Mk. 13:26;Mk. 14:21; Mk. 14:41; Mk. 14:62; Lk. 5:24; Lk.
6:5; Lk. 6:22; Lk. 7:34; Lk. 9:22; Lk. 9:26; Lk. 9:44; Lk. 9:56; Lk. 9:58; Lk.
11:30;Lk. 12:8; Lk. 12:10;Lk. 12:40;Lk. 17:22; Lk. 17:24;Lk. 17:26;Lk.
17:30;Lk. 18:8; Lk. 18:31;Lk. 19:10;Lk. 21:27; Lk. 21:36;Lk. 22:22;Lk.
22:48;Lk. 22:69;Lk. 24:7; Jn. 1:51; Jn. 3:13; Jn. 3:14; Jn. 5:27; Jn. 6:27; Jn.
6:53; Jn. 6:62; Jn. 8:28; Jn. 9:35; Jn. 12:23;Jn. 12:34; Jn. 13:31;Acts 7:56;
Heb. 2:6; Rev. 1:13; Rev. 14:14
Daniel prophesiedof the Messiah's coming...

“I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a Sonof Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And was presentedbefore Him. (Da 7:13-note)
BridgewayBible Dictionary on Son of Man - Of all the titles commonly used
of Jesus in the New Testament, ‘Son of man’ was the one most used by Jesus
himself and leastused by others. It hardly occurs at all outside the Gospels
(Acts 7:56; Revelation1:13; Revelation14:14), and inside the Gospels is used
almost solelyby Jesus. By using this unusual title for himself, Jesus made
people think carefully about who he was and what his mission involved (John
12:34;John 13:31-32). (Click for complete description) (Here is another good
description of Son of Man).
NET Note - The term Son of Man, which is a title in Greek, comes from a
pictorial description in Da 7:13-note of one "like a son of man" (i.e., a human
being). It is Jesus'favorite way to refer to himself. Jesus did not revealthe
backgroundof the term here, which mixes human and divine imagery as the
man in Daniel rides a cloud, something only God does. He just used it. It also
could be an idiom in Aramaic meaning either "some person" or "me." So
there is a little ambiguity in its use here, since its origin is not clearat this
point. However, the action makes it clearthat Jesus usedit to refer to himself
here.
Wiersbe on Son of Man - In Luke 5:24, we have the first recorded use of the
title Son of man in Luke’s Gospel, where it is found twenty-three times (see
list above). Our Lord’s listeners were familiar with this title. It was usedof the
Prophet Ezekielover eighty times, and Danielapplied it to the Messiah(Dan.
7:13, 18). “Sonof man” was our Lord’s favorite name for Himself; this title is
found at leasteighty-two times in the Gospelrecord. OccasionallyHe used the
title “Sonof God” (Matt. 27:43; Luke 22:70;John 5:25; 9:35; 10:36;11:4), but
“Sonof man” was usedmore. Certainly the Jewishpeople caught the

messianic characterofthis title, but it also identified Him with the people He
came to save (Luke 19:10). Like Ezekiel, the Old Testament“sonofman,”
Jesus “satwhere they sat” (Ezek. 3:15). (Ibid)
Leon Morris on the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of me -
This is not very specific, whichmay be part of the reasonwhy they did not
understand this saying. But more importantly, it was concealedfrom them,
which may mean that there was oppositionfrom the forces ofevil (though
Hendriksen thinks Godhid it). Luke goes out of his wayto emphasize their
inability to grasp the saying, for his words are much strongerthan those in the
other Gospels.
Delivered(betrayed, handed over) (3860)(paradidomi from para = alongside,
beside, to the side of, over to + didomi = to give) conveys the basic meaning of
to give over from one's hand to someone orsomething, especiallyto give over
to the powerof another. Jesus usedthis same verb in similar prophetic
declarations...
Matthew 20:18 "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem;and the Son of Man
will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him
to death,
Matthew 20:19 and will hand Him over to the Gentiles (Pilate, Romans)to
mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised
up."
Matthew 26:2 "You know that after two days the Passoveris coming, and the
Son of Man is to be handed overfor crucifixion."

Matthew 26:15 (Religious leaders to Judas) and said, "What are you willing to
give me to betray Him to you?" And they weighedout thirty pieces of silver to
him. 16 From then on he beganlooking for a goodopportunity to betray
Jesus.
Matthew 26:21 As they were eating, He said, "Truly I sayto you that one of
you will betray Me."
Matthew 26:23 And He answered, "He who dipped his hand with Me in the
bowl is the one who will betray Me. 24 "The Son of Man is to go, just as it is
written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It
would have been good for that man if he had not been born." 35 And Judas,
who was betraying Him, said, "Surely it is not I, Rabbi?" Jesus saidto him,
"You have said it yourself."
Matthew 26:45 Then He came to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still
sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Sonof Man is being
betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 "Getup, let us be going; behold, the one
who betrays Me is at hand!"...Now he who was betraying Him gave them a
sign, saying, "WhomeverI kiss, He is the one; seize Him."
Matthew 27:2 and they bound Him, and led Him away and delivered Him to
Pilate the governor.
Matthew 27:3 Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had
been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the
chief priests and elders, 4 saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent
blood." But they said, "What is that to us? See to that yourself!"

Matthew 27:18 For he knew that because ofenvy they had handed Him over.
Matthew 27:26 Then he releasedBarabbas forthem; but after having Jesus
scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.
Acts 3:13 "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has
glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disownedin the
presence ofPilate, when he had decided to release Him.
John MacArthur explains that "ultimately, it was GodHimself who delivered
His Sonto be killed: “The Lord was pleasedto crush Him, putting Him to
grief” (Isa. 53:10). In Romans 8:32 Paul wrote that God “did not spare His
own Son, but delivered Him over for us all.” It is not true, as some skeptics
claim, that Jesus intended to bring in the kingdom, but His plans went awry
and He was killed. The plan of God from the beginning was that Jesus would
offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin. He was, as Petersaid, “deliveredover by
the predetermined plan and foreknowledgeofGod… [and] nailed to a cross
by the hands of godless men” (Acts 2:23). Therefore it was absolutely
necessaryfor the Lord to “go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the
elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the
third day” (Matt. 16:21). Before the kingdom came the cross. Jesus hadto die;
the plan of God could not be setaside (cf. Matt. 26:24, 54; Luke 24:25-26, 46).
(MacArthur New TestamentCommentary – Luke 6-10).
Summary of Jesus'Nine Prophecies ofHis Passion(See also preceding list)
Matthew MarkLuke
First passionannouncement Mt 16:21–23 Mk 8:31–33Lk 9:22+

Secondpassionannouncement Mt 17:22–23 Mk 9:30–32Lk 9:43–
45+
Third passionannouncement Mt 20:17–19 Mk 10:32–34 Lk 18:31–
34+
Luke 9:45 But they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed
from them so that they would not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him
about this statement
KJV But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they
perceivedit not: and they fearedto ask him of that saying.
Lk 9:46; 2:50; 18:34;Matthew 16:22; Mark 8:16-18,32,33;9:10,32;John
12:16,34;John 14:5; 16:17,18;2 Corinthians 3:14-16
Luke 9 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Luke 9:37-45 - StevenCole
Luke 9:37-45 An Addendum of Faith - John MacArthur
Luke 9:43-45 The Amazing Personof Christ - John MacArthur
Jesus had alluded to His death earlier in this chapterbut even in this much
clearerdeclaration, the disciples failed to grasp what He was saying...
“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejectedby the elders and
chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.”
(Lk 9:22-note)
Leon Morris rightly reminds us that "On the other side of the cross it must
have been terribly difficult to graspthe truth that Jesus’Messiahshipmeant
his death."

Bock on they did not understand this statement - What they fail to grasp is its
import. How can the promised one, the recently confessedMessiah, possibly
accomplishGod's will and be rejected? Is he not to be a glorious, victorious
figure? Is he not to bring deliverance? The disciples fail to grasp the answers
to questions like these. Their lack of understanding is why they must listen to
him. The lessons are just beginning, and some expectations need revision.
(Luke 9:18-50 ChristologicalConfession-Discipleship)
Not understand (50)(agnoeofrom a = not + noéo = perceive, understand) not
have information about, to not know, to not understand (Mk 9:32, Lk 9:45), to
be unaware of, to not recognize (Ac 13:27), to be ignorant of (to lack
information concerning something). Agnoeo conveys the nuance of lacking the
ability to understand in He 5:2 and of inexcusable moral/ethical ignorance
(even disregard) in Ro 10:3). This verb gives us our English agnostic.
Was concealed(was hidden from) (3871)(parakalupto from para = beside,
intensive + kalupto = to concealthoroughly), is found only in Luke 9:45, of
"concealing" from the disciples the factof the delivering up of Christ to be
crucified. Zodhiates adds that parakalupto meant To cover over or hide,
especiallyby putting something out of sight, or near or before an object, e.g.,
the eyes (Sept.:Ezek. 22:26). Metaphoricallyin Luke 9:45, referring to the
saying of Jesus."
So that (hina) term of purpose or result - Why was the purpose of Jesus'
saying being concealed?
Perceive (143)(aisthanomai)means to be aware of something by means of the
senses,grasp, understand. To have the capacityto discern and therefore
understand what is not readily comprehensible (Only here in NT but 6x in
Lxx = Job 23:5; 40:23;Pr 17:10;24:14; Isa. 33:11;49:26)

NET Note - The passive verb had been concealedprobably indicates that some
force was preventing them from responding. It is debated whether God or
Satanis meant here. By Lk 24:25 it is clearthat their lack of response is their
own responsibility. The only way to reverse this is to pay careful attention as
Luke 24:44a urges
Robertsonon it was concealedfrom them so that they would not perceive it -
"This explanation at leastrelieves the disciples to some extent of full
responsibility for their ignorance about the death of Jesus as Mark 9:32
observes, as does Luke here that they were afraid to ask him. Plummer says,
"They were not allowedto understand the saying then, in order that they
might remember it afterwards, and see that Jesus had met His sufferings with
full knowledge andfree will." Perhaps also, if they had fully understood, they
might have lackedcourage to hold on to the end. But it is a hard problem."
J C Ryle on Luke 9:37-45 - The event described in these verses took place
immediately after the transfiguration. The Lord Jesus, we should remark, did
not tarry long on the Mount of Olives. His communion with Moses and Elijah
was very short. He soonreturned to His accustomedwork of doing goodto a
sin-strickenworld. In His life on earth, to receive honor and have visions of
glory was the exception. To minister to others, to heal all who were oppressed
by the devil, to do acts of mercy to sinners, was the rule. Happy are those
Christians who have learnedof Jesus to live for others more than for
themselves, and who understand that it is "more blessedto give than to
receive." (Acts 20:35.)
(1) We have first, in these verses, anexample of what a parent should do when
he is troubled about his children. We are told of a man in severe distress
about his only son. This son was possessedby an evil spirit, and grievously
tormented by him, both in body and soul. In his distress the father makes

application to our Lord Jesus Christ for relief. "Master,"he says, "I beseech
You, look upon my son — for he is my only child."
There are many Christian fathers and mothers at this day who are just as
miserable about their children as the man of whom we are reading. The son
who was once the "desire of their eyes," and in whom their lives were bound
up, turns out a spendthrift, a profligate, and a companion of sinners. The
daughter who was once the flower of the family, and of whom they said, "This
girl shall be the comfort of our old age," becomesself-willed, worldly minded,
and a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God. Their hearts are wellnear
broken. The iron seems to enter into their souls. The devil appears to triumph
over them, and rob them of their choicestjewels. Theyare ready to cry, "I
shall go to the grave sorrowing. What goodshall my life do to me?"
Now what should a father or mother do in a case like this? They should do as
the man before us did. They should go to Jesus in prayer, and cry to Him
about their child. They should spread before that merciful Saviorthe tale of
their sorrows, andentreat Him to help them. Greatis the powerof prayer and
intercession!The child of many prayers shall seldombe castaway. God's time
of conversionmay not be ours. He may think fit to prove our faith by keeping
us long waiting. But so long as a child lives, and a parent prays, we have no
right to despair about that child's soul.
(2) We have, secondly, in these verses, anexample of Christ's readiness to
show mercy to young people. We are told in the case before us, that the prayer
of the afflicted parent was graciouslygranted. He said to him, "Bring your
son here." And then "He rebuked the unclean spirit, and healedthe child, and
delivered him againto his father." We have many similar cases in the Gospels.
The daughter of Jairus, the nobleman's son at Capernaum, the daughter of
the Canaanitishwoman, the widow's sonat Nain, are all instances of our
Lord's interestin those who are young. The young are exactly those whom the

devil labors to lead captive and make His own. The young seemto have been
exactly the people whom our Lord took a specialdelight in helping. Three He
plucked out of the very jaws of death. Two, as in the case before us, He
rescuedfrom the complete dominion of the devil.
There is a meaning in facts like these. They are not recordedwithout a special
purpose. They are meant to encourage allwho try to do goodto the souls of
the young. They are meant to remind us that young men and young women
are specialobjects ofinterest to Christ. They supply us with an antidote to the
common idea that it is useless to press religion on the attention of young
people. Such an idea, let us remember, comes from the devil and not from
Christ. He who castout the evil spirit from the child before us, still lives, and
is still mighty to save. Let us then work on, and try to do goodto the young.
Whateverthe world may think, Jesus is wellpleased.
(3) We have, lastly, in these verses, anexample of the spiritual ignorance
which may be found even in the hearts of goodmen. We are told that our
Lord said to His disciples, "The Son of man shall be delivered into the hands
of men." They had heard the same thing from His lips little more than a week
before. But now, as then, the words seemedlost upon them. They heard as
though they heard not. They could not realize the fact that their Masterwas to
die. They could not realize the greattruth that Christ was to be "cut off"
before He was to reign, and that this cutting off was a literal death upon the
cross. It is written, "They understood not this saying" — "it was hidden from
them," they perceivedit not."
Such slowness ofunderstanding may surprise us much at this period of the
world. We are apt to forgetthe powerof early habits of thought, and national
prejudices, in the midst of which the disciples had been trained. "The throne
of David," says a greatdivine, "did so fill their eyes that they could not see the
cross."Above all, we forget the enormous difference betweenthe position we

occupy who know the history of the crucifixion and the Scriptures which it
fulfilled, and the position of a believing Jew who lived before Christ died and
the veil was rent in twain. Whatever we may think of it, the ignorance ofthe
disciples should teachus two useful lessons, whichwe shall all do well to learn.
For one thing, let us learn that men may understand spiritual things very
feebly, and yet be true children of God. The head may be very dull when the
heart is right. Grace is far better than gifts, and faith than knowledge. Ifa
man has faith and grace enoughto give up all for Christ's sake, andto take up
the cross andfollow Him, he shall be saved in spite of much ignorance. Christ
shall own him at the lastday.
Finally, let us learn to bear with ignorance in others, and to deal patiently
with beginners in religion. Let us not make men offenders for a word. Let us
not setour brother down as having no grace, becausehe does not exhibit clear
knowledge. Has he faith in Christ? Does he love Christ? These are the
principal things. If Jesus couldendure so much weaknessin His disciples, we
may surely do likewise.
THOMAS CONSTABLE
Verses 43-45
7. Jesus" announcementofHis betrayal9:43b-45 (cf. Matthew 17:22-23;Mark
9:30-32)
Luke"s narrative joins this event with the preceding one thematically.
Howeverthe other Synoptics indicate that this conversationtook place

sometime later ( Matthew 17:22; Mark 9:31). Luke"s constructionhas the
effectof contrasting the wonder of the people with their rejectionthat resulted
in Jesus" sufferings and death. Luke also stressedthe fulfillment of divine
purpose in Jesus" passion.
Verse 45
Howeverthis announcement did not make sense to the disciples. This was
probably because ofthe popular view of the Messiahthat still influenced
them, the glorious prophecies about the Son of Man in the Old Testament, and
Jesus" greatpopularity. Mostimportant they did not understand because
God hid this understanding from them (cf. Luke 24:16). That Isaiah, they
understood the words but could not understand how this would happen,
partly because of their limited faith. They remembered Jesus" words, but they
only understood the prediction after Jesus" resurrection. Perhaps theywere
afraid to ask Jesus to clarify what He said because they fearedto hear what
they suspected, that Jesus would indeed die soon.
"Some interpreters understand the statement, "It was hid from them that
they might not understand it," as indication that God prevented the disciples
from understanding. [Note:Footnote39:See, e.g, R. J. Dillon, "Previewing
Luke"s Projectfrom His Prologue ( Luke 1:1-4)," Catholic Biblical
Quarterly43 (1981):216.]While the passive formulation may hint at divine
involvement, I would caution againstthe assumption that human resistance is
not an important factorat this point in the narrative. If a divine purpose is
involved, it is a purpose which works in and through human resistance, for
which humans remain responsible." [Note:Tannehill, 1:227.]
Thus there was a "suffering secret" as wellas a "messianic secret" inJesus
ministry. [Note:Marshall, The Gospel. . ., p393.]The "messianic secret" was
the factthat Jesus was the divine Messiah, whichHe revealedonly gradually
before the Triumphal Entry. He withheld this information to preclude

superficial and premature acceptanceofHimself by the multitudes. The
"suffering secret" wasthe information about Jesus" passionthat God
revealedto the disciples only gradually before the Resurrection.
BOB DEFFINBAUGH
The Disciples’Dismay
(9:43b-45)
When the disciples were with the Lord in Galilee (Matthew 17:22; Mark
9:30), Jesus once againinformed them of His coming death and resurrection:
While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples,
“Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Sonof Man is going to be
betrayed into the hands of men.” But they did not understand what this
meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not graspit, and they were
afraid to ask him about it (Luke 9:43b-45).
Jesus beganby telling the disciples to “listen carefully,” an expressionwhich
should have been especiallysignificantto the three, who had heard the
Father’s exhortation to “listen to” the Jesus, Messiah(Luke 9:35). He then
went on, once again, to tell of His coming death and resurrection. The
disciples did not yet understand what He meant, although they were grieved
by His words (Matthew 9:23). They would feared to ask Jesus whatHe meant
(Luke 9:45).

MATTHEW HENRY
The notice Christ gave to his disciples of his approaching sufferings:The Son
of man shall be delivered into the hands of men, wickedmen, men of the worst
characterthey shall be permitted to abuse him at their pleasure. That is here
implied which is expressedby the other evangelists:They shall kill him. But
that which is peculiar here is, 1. The connectionof this with what goes next
before, of the admiration with which the people were struck at beholding
Christ's miracles (Luke 9:43): While they all wondered at all things which
Jesus did, he said this to his disciples. They had a fond conceitof his temporal
kingdom, and that he should reign, and they with him, in secularpomp and
powerand now they thought that this mighty power of his would easilyeffect
the thing, and his interest gainedby his miracles in the people would
contribute to it and therefore Christ, who knew what was in their hearts,
takes this occasionto tell them again, what he had told them before, that he
was so far from having men delivered into his hands that he must be delivered
into the hands of men, so far from living in honour that he must die in
disgrace and all his miracles, and the interest he has by them gained in the
hearts of the people, will not be able to prevent it. 2. The solemn preface with
which it is introduced: "Let these sayings sink down into your ears take
specialnotice of what I say, and mix faith with it let not the notions you have
of the temporal kingdom of the Messiahstopyour ears againstit, nor make
you unwilling to believe it. Admit what I say, and submit to it." Let it sink
down into your hearts so the Syriac and Arabic read it. The word of Christ
does us no good, unless we let it sink down into our heads and hearts. 3. The
unaccountable stupidity of the disciples, with reference to this prediction of
Christ's sufferings. It was said in Mark, They understood not that saying. It
was plain enough, but they would not understand it in the literal sense,
because it agreednot with their notions and they could not understand it in
any other, and were afraid to ask him lestthey should be undeceived and
awakedout of their pleasing dream. But it is here added that it was hidden
from them, that they perceivedit not, through the weakness offaith and the
powerof prejudice. We cannot think that it was in mercy hidden from them,

lest they should be swallowedup with overmuch sorrow at the prospectof it
but that it was a paradox, because they made it so to themselves.
JOHN MACARTHUR
The Amazing Personof Christ
Sermons Luke 9:43–45 42-129 Jan26, 2003
A + A - RESET
Well, we've been listening to such magnificent music, such beautiful, beautiful
music. Our hearts are...are lifted and certainly I'm reminded of how the
music in our generationhas descendedalong with the minds and the souls of
this fallen world to the level of the inane kind of vain repetition from there
down to the trashy noise that occupies ourculture. Where can you go to hear
music that is exalting and beautiful and magnificent and what God intended
in the gift that He gave us. And then when it focuses onthe Lord Jesus Christ,
it takes on even greaterbeauty and magnificence.
Gay, who sang so beautifully, "Oh I want to know You more," couldn't have
chosena better song to connectwith what's on my heart, nor could we have
sung a more appropriate hymn togetherthan, "More Love to Thee, oh
Christ." As I give you a little bit of a meditation before we have the Lord's
Table, I just want to maybe speak personallyfor a moment, and then tie it in
to the Scripture text in Luke.
It was a number of years ago that I was askedto write a book on my favorite
verse. It's always a challenge to identify a favorite verse. Whichever one I'm
preaching on this Sunday is my favorite verse. But when pressed to the wall

to write this little book on my favorite verse, I ended up with a verse that
perhaps is somewhatobscure, but nonetheless it is at the heart of...ofmy own
life. SecondCorinthians 3:18, "We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a
mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from
glory to glory, just as from the Spirit the Lord."
And without getting into a big explanation of the verse, what it says is those of
us who live in the New Covenant, those of us who are on this side of the cross
and the resurrection have the veil takenoff our faces. There's nothing
obscure to us as it was to those in the Old Testament. We now can look in a
glass, something that's clearand see the glory of the Lord. And, of course,
that glass, thatpost-veil glass in which we see the glory of the Lord is the New
Testament. And as we gaze into the New Testament, we see the glory of the
Lord. And as we gaze at His glory, we are being transformed from one level
of glory to the next, to the next, to the next, to the next by the Holy Spirit.
That is essentiallythe heart and soul of what it means to be a Christian. You
look into the New Testamentyou see the majesty of Jesus Christ. As the
majesty of Christ fills your mind and captivates your soul, the Spirit of God
uses the reality of your understanding of Christ to shape you into His image.
The more you know about Christ, the more likely you are to reflectHim.
And that really is the Christian life. As I look back at my life and all the years
of study and tens of thousands of hours of going through the Scripture,
whether I'm writing books or preparing sermons, or writing notes in a study
Bible, or whatever, all of my efforts to understand the Scripture do not end
with the understanding of the Scripture. My goalhas never been to know the
facts of the Bible. It isn't that I want to know Bible history, or that I want to
know what's in books and verses. That's not the end, that's only the means to
an end. I want to know Him. Paul said, "ThatI may know Him." It is
the...the joy of my life to find God in the living Christ on the pages of
Scripture. The more I study the Bible, the more glorious Christ is to me. The
more I understand the Scripture, the more majestic and magnificent and

awesome Jesus Christis and my worship and my service to Him is a direct
reflectionof that awe. A limited view of Jesus Christproduces a limited
capacityto worship and limited motivation to serve. The greatobjective of
Scripture is to know Christ so that you can love Him more, so that you can be
sweptawayas the hymn writer put it, in wonder, love and praise. It's not
about knowing the Bible, it never should be. Knowledge puffs up. It's about
knowing Christ. Not some mystical knowledge, notsome knowledge induced.
Your lack of understanding about Christ cripples your worship and no
amount of music and no amount of sort of spiritual mood-inducing is going to
produce true worship, which rises out of an overwhelming wonder concerning
Christ.
So whenever we gather together, it is Christ who is the goaland the end of
everything we learn. Everything I know about the sinfulness of man makes
me love Christ more because He brought an end to all my sin. Everything I
know about the glory of Godmakes me love Christ more because I see God
fully revealedin human terms that I can comprehend in Christ. It all resolves
in Him. He's the theme of all of Scripture. And so that is why it is such a
privilege for me when I look back over my life, all the things I might have
done with my life, and all the various and sundry careers one may have, there
was within me, and it started developing when I was very young, this
insatiable desire to understand in a very meagerway what Paul meant when
he said, "ThatI may know Him." And there would have been no way that I
ever could have pursued the knowledge ofChrist the way I have in the
ministry had I been doing something else. So I confess to you here that it's
really not about preaching sermons to you that attracts me to the ministry, it's
about having you pay me to pursue Christ. How's that for a career? The
highest possible calling imaginable is to pursue the knowledge ofJesus Christ
and you pay me to do that. And all I have to do is to show up here on Sunday
and saya few things and I can getaway with it. Thank you, thank you. Thank
you.

It's really about knowing Christ. And so consequently you understand why
that somebodywould sayto me, and occasionallyit's been said, "You know,
that this age does there ever seemto be a samenessand a commonness in your
preaching?" Wellnot from my standpoint. I don't know how you're
responding to it. But if there's any enthusiasm in my life, it's not because I'm
having to crank it up. I'm telling you, the more I learn about my Lord as
revealedin the pages ofScripture, the more astonishing and wondrous He
becomes to me, the higher the level of my enthusiasm for the glory of who He
is. And as you well know, very often I work hard to ring out some glory of
Christ in an obscure part of a verse and that's why it takes us forever to get
through these books. But who am I to diminish the revealedglory of Christ.
It's my responsibility to open every nook and cranny that I canfind and
expose every nuance that God has delivered to us about the majesty of His
Son so that we can gaze into the glory of His face and be changedinto His
image as we move from one level of His glory to the next.
Well, that takes me back to Luke chapter 9. We are going through Luke 9,
and just as a part of the meditation to prepare us for the Lord's Table in
which we will look at the glory of Christ againon the cross, I just want to
wrap up the final three verses of our look at Luke 9 verses 37 to 45. We took
it as a unit but I never was able to coverthe final three verses. And as I was
just thinking and meditating over these verses, there's nothing really hard to
understand here. There's nothing really very new here. But it just provides
for us a wonderful, wonderful summation of some of the very core,
astonishing realities about Christ. Everything about Him is beyond human
explanation. Everything about Him is startling and astonishing and shocking
and amazing. Everything about Him fills me with wonder. He is the most
attractive, the most magnificent, the most beautiful, the noblest, the most
wonderful personthat one could ever not only know about, but imagine, know
personally. I am foreverriveted on every detail about Jesus Christ. That
becomes the purpose of all Bible study, the purpose of all preaching, and the
purpose of all Christian living. And how sad is it that the evangelicalchurch
today has lost its Christ-centeredness andreplacedit with man-centeredness.
What a tragedy.

We ended last time... Verse 43: They were all amazed at the greatnessofGod.
You can't look at Jesus and not be astonished. You can't possibly look at Him
and not be amazed. And it was true. They were amazed at the greatness of
God manifest in Jesus. He was God. He is God and He manifests that deity.
And they saw it. They were amazed at...Essentiallythe word here is the
“majesty” of God, the “exaltedness”ofGod. As I read that againwhere we
ended last time, it became for me a transition into the next three statements.
Here the majesty of God in Christ is on display, first of all, in His amazing
power, His amazing power. Verse 43 then says, "While everyone was
marveling at all He was doing," and we'll just take that much of it. And we
know what He was doing. What was He doing? WellHe had just done one
really amazing and astounding miracle in delivering a young boy from a very
powerful and obstinate demon who was trying to kill the boy over many,
many years and not only traumatizing the boy horribly but his father and
family as well. The disciples were unable to deal with the demon so Jesus cast
the demon out in a very dramatic encounter. That was only emblematic of all
that He was doing. That was only one of the realm of miracles that Jesus
demonstrated. In fact, there were many miracles that Jesus did beyond the
demonic world.
If you go back to chapter7, verse 21 it says, "He cured many people of
diseasesand afflictions and evil spirits. He granted sight to many who were
blind." So He had this power over demons, He had this power over disease.
The disciples of John the Baptist were told, "Go and report to John what
you've seenand heard. The blind receive sight," verse 22, "the lame walk, the
lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raisedup, and the poor have
the gospelpreachedto them." He had powerover disease, He had powerover
demons, He had powerover death, He had power over nature, as we've
already learned. We know all that. And they were amazed at that. This is
the amazing powerof Jesus. There's nothing like it, nothing like it. And
everyone was marveling at it. The word for "marvel" there is a very familiar
New Testamentverb, thaumazō. It's used many, many times, severaldozen

times in the New Testamentand it means to be filled with wonder. It means to
be taken outside the realm of explanation. That's what it means. It's the idea
of being astonished. It's going beyond any possible human explanation. It's
to... It’s to be left with inscrutability, incomprehensibility. There is no
explanation. His authority, His amazing sovereignauthority over all things
createdwas literally inexplicable apart from that it was the greatness ofGod
at work.
Early in His ministry He beganto demonstrate His authority in every realm
and that authority beganto expand as He went through His ministry. Early
on His teaching had greaterauthority than the officialteachers ofIsrael
because He Himself was the source oftruth. And then he began to
demonstrate authority over all diseases, andthen authority over all demons,
and then authority over death, and then authority of all things to forgive sin,
and then authority to delegate divine powerto others, the apostles and later
the seventy, and then authority to execute judgment on every living soul and
determine whether they would enter into hell or heaven, and then authority to
give up His own life, and then authority to take it back. So, there was this
expanding expressionof exousia, authority, or literally power over everything
in the createdorder. All that authority was only demonstratedon a limited
basis. It was confined to Him and His presence in the little land of Israel.
And so that...that limitless, endless, boundless, infinite authority which He
possessedfrom all eternity as God a very God was then narroweddown and
confined and limited to a very minimal expression. Nonetheless, it was purely
the powerof God but it was limited until He comes to the GreatCommission.
And when Jesus comes to the end of His gospelrecordand gives the lastwords
for the apostles to write, He gives them the Great Commission, and to
Matthew through the Holy Spirit He gives the final words Jesus gave and they
are these. This is how He began, "All authority is given to Me in heavenand
in earth." And Jesus was in essence saying, "Myincarnation is over, I'm going
back to the Father. No more limited authority, I now am being restoredall
the authority everywhere in the universe." This authority, which rightly
belongedto Him, was demonstrated in all of the things He did while He was

here, amazing, amazing power. No way to explain it exceptto say it is the
greatness ofGod.
And so, as we go through and study all these miracles, we are day after day in
the life of Jesus, vignette after vignette, exposedto this massive poweras were
the people of that very time. We would like to convince ourselves that had we
been there we never would have done what they did and that is rejectJesus.
But that would only be because we misunderstand the sinfulness of sin and the
deadness of spiritual death and the blindness of spiritual blindness. They
liked His works. Theyloved His works. Theywere fascinatedby His works.
It was His words they hated. It was His words they hated. They didn't like
His diagnosis oftheir sinful condition. Theydidn't like His rejectionof their
self-righteousnessand legalism. And so, though they were astounded by His
power, they followedtheir perverted and faithless leaders in murdering the
Messiah, the Son of God. So, while sovereign majestydominated in His
ministry, suffering humiliation lurked in the shadows.
And it's at a moment like this when He's doing all these mighty deeds and
He's just demonstratedpower over this very, very strong demon in the case of
this boy, and other miracles are happening, it's at this point that the disciples’
messianic fervor is heightened again. And when they...think maybe we're on
the brink, they wanted the kingdom so badly they had, along with all the rest
of the people in Israel, believed that the Messiahwouldcome and He would
come and setup the kingdom when He came. And He would come and exalt
Israeland they were on the inside track and they would be exalted to the high
places in the kingdom and they had all these hopes and desires and they were
deeply imbedded in their thinking. They were pervasive in their thinking. So
pervasive that when Jesus talkedabout His dying, it was beyond their ability
to comprehend it and Peter pulled Him aside and said, "That's not the way
the plan's laid out, Lord. No, no, that's not the plan." Peterdidn't mind
rebuking Jesus because Jesus hadthe wrong plan. Peterknew what the plan
was. They all knew what the plan was. It was laid down for centuries in their

minds. When the Messiahcame whatHe would do. That's why even to this
very day today, any orthodox Jew who looks at Isaiah53 has absolutely no
idea that that relates to the Messiah. In fact, if you saythat to an orthodox
Jew, that's blasphemy. A crucified Messiah? AMessiahwho becomes a sin
offering? Impossible.
So they either rejectit all together, say they don't know what it means, or say
Isaiah53 is designedto portray suffering Israel. So they had this idea the
Messiahwouldcome and all He would do is the miraculous and set up the
kingdom. But this amazing sovereign, this one with amazing power, also gave
an amazing sacrifice and verse 43 says, "He said to His disciples then," verse
44, "Let these words sink into your ears for the Son of Man is going to be
delivered into the hands of men." Right at the point where they're starting to
feel it again, the surge, the messianic surge, the kingdom surge;it's going to
happen now. Even though Jesus a couple of times had already told them
specifically...ifyou'll note for one, back in the 9th chapter and verse 22, He
said to them, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejectedby
the elders and chief priests and scribes and be murdered, be raised up the
third day," He had said it, He had said it severaltimes to them, they still do
not believe it. He that is convinced againsthis will is unconvinced still. It just
didn't compute. They just sloughedit off their minds. And so He says to
them, "Let these words sink into your ears."
He's trying to getthem to listen. Actually the language here in the Greek is
the idea of laying something in your ear. Let it just sort of lay in there until
you've gottenan understanding of it. The homage of the crowd was fickle.
The praise that was being offered to Him, the wonder and the marveling at
the greatnessofGod was trivial and temporary. The one who was the
greatness ofGodincarnate, the one who was so amazing would be rejected
very soonin just six months. And so, wanting not the disciples to pursue false
expectations and to cultivate and nurture false hopes, Jesus says, "Letthese
words sink into your ears, for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the

hands of men." I told you that and you can fill in the rest of it, and the men
are the chief priests and scribes and the elders and they're going to be the ones
to execute Him by the means of the Romans and then He's going to rise again
the third day. So He says you've got to understand this. You can't be
expecting the kingdom. There's a cross first. They were, of course,
responding to the popularity of Jesus and that just exacerbatedtheir
predisposition to messianic hopes. So He says... Look atthat phrase, "The
Son of Man is going to be delivered." Going to be, about to be, mellei, it
means in a few months I'm going to be delivered. Deliveredis paradidōmi. It
can be translated “betrayed.” Sometimes it is translated “betrayed.” But it's
better to keepit in the generalgeneric sense, “handedover.” It's seeing it as a
technicalterm for a criminal, handed over for punishment, handed over for
judgment, handed over for, in the case ofJesus, execution. It's a familiar
term in the recordof Jesus. Matthew 17:22, "The SonofMan is going to be
delivered into the hands of men and they will kill Him."
Now who... Who is doing this delivering? Who is the one doing this
delivering? Well, was it Judas? It was Judas. Matthew 26:24, "The Sonof
Man is to go," go to the cross, "justas it has been written of Him but woe to
that man by whom the Son of Man is delivered." And that man by whom the
Son of Man was delivered to the leaders was none other than Judas. By the
way, those people who say that Jesus'plans never materialized, that
everything Jesus hopedfor went awry; Jesus was trying to bring in the
kingdom but somehow things went wrong and He was killed; are liars of the
rankestorder. All along Jesus said, "I am going to be delivered over to them.
I am going to be killed by them. And I am going to rise on the third day."
That was in the plan from the very beginning. There was no plan B. There
was no disruption of plan. Nothing went wrong, everything went exactlyright.
Even Judas was planned. Even Judas was prophesied in the Old Testamentas
the familiar friend who would lift up his heel againstthe Lord. The one with
whom He would break bread would betray Him. Yes, Judas was culpable in
Jesus being delivered into the hands of men. It was Judas who delivered Jesus
to the Jews, to the leaders.

But, what about the Jews, was it them? Listen to Acts 3:13, "The God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified His servant
Jesus, the one whom you delivered up to Pilate." There's culpability for
Judas, who delivered Jesus to the Jews. There's culpability for the Jews who
delivered Jesus to Pilate. Matthew 27:26 says this, "Pilate delivered Jesus to
be crucified." Judas delivered Jesus to the Jews. The Jews deliveredJesus to
Pilate. Pilate delivered Jesus to the Romansoldiers to be executed. There's
culpability at every point, but none of that gets to the real issue. The Son of
Man is going to be delivered. The Son of Man is going to be delivered. The
true deliverer was God Himself. I read you in Isaiah53 that it pleasedthe
Lord to bruise Him, that it was God Himself who chose Jesus to be an offering
for sin. That's why Acts 2:23 says this: "This man, Jesus, delivered up by the
predetermined plan and foreknowledgeofGod, you nailed to a cross by the
hands of godless menand put Him to death." You did it, you bear culpability,
and Peterwas preaching that to the Jewishpeople at Pentecost. Youbear
culpability but it was Godwho delivered Him up by His own predetermined
plan and foreknowledge, Acts 3:13. Romans 8:32 says the same thing in a
more familiar verse perhaps that most of you would know. Listen, "If God is
for us, who is againstus? God, who did not spare His ownSon but delivered
Him up for us all." It was God who delivered His Son. It's an amazing
sacrifice, anamazing plan by Godwho is pleasedto deliver up His Son to be
bruised for our iniquities, to be chastenedfor our peace, to be wounded for
our transgressions,to be beaten, as it were, and executedfor our spiritual
healing.
So here is Jesus saying to the disciples, "Look, don't let the temporary
euphoria of the crowd... Don't let the temporary popularity give you false
hopes." In Matthew 16:21 Jesus saidthe same thing, of course, in Matthew's
accountof it, but there's a word there that just strikes me. Matthew 16:21,
"From that time Jesus beganto show His disciples that He must go to
Jerusalemand suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes
and be killed and be raisedon the third day." It's the “must” that interests

me. It's the “must.” It was at this very point, six months before His death,
that Jesus beganto focus less and less on the crowdand more and more on the
disciples and beganto show them what was coming. And it was a must.
There wasn't any alternative. And there are four elements. He must go to
Jerusalembecause that's where the Passoverlamb has to die. He must go to
Jerusalem. There can't be any other place. He will be the final sacrifice and
He will be the sacrifice in the very place where sacrifices are made to God.
And so in Luke 9:51 it says He resolutelyset His face to go to Jerusalem.
That's the first “must.”
The secondis: He must suffer many things from the elders and chief priests
and scribes. Theyare the Sanhedrin. He must suffer many things at their
hand. He suffered a mock trial. He suffered horrific injustice. He suffered
all of that at their hands as well as the terrible verbal lashings, the
discrediting, the mockery, the blasphemy, the scornthat they heapedupon
Him. And then it was them who turned Him over, of course, to the Romans
where He was beatenand scourgedand crownedwith thorns and all the rest.
This was an indictment on the apostasyofreligious Israel.
The third “must” was that He must be murdered. He must be because without
the shedding of His blood there would be no forgiveness ofsin. And the
fourth “must” is that He must be raised on the third day. And to that we say:
"Amen and Amen," right?
So He said, "Look, getit in your heads, lay it in your ears. Let it sink into
your ears. I have to die." Matthew says they were deeply grieved when they
heard it. Mark says in chapter 9 they didn't understand and they were afraid
to ask. And the reasonthey couldn't get it was because it was so contrary to
all their understanding. That's why in 1 Corinthians Paul says that the cross
is a stumbling block to Israel. They can't comprehend of a crucified Messiah,
that's just absolute nonsense. Anybody who hangs on a tree is cursedby God,

the Old Testamentsays. Godisn't going to curse His Messiah. How could...
How could God kill God on a cross? It's absolutelyridiculous. And the idea
of a Messiahwho comes to Israeland is executedby the leadership of Israel
was impossible to comprehend. So alien to their personalaffections, so alien
to their messianic expectation, so disturbing to their faith and love for Jesus
Christ, so opposite all their hopes for Israel, so sad with implications that
embracedeven them for they too were told they would take up a cross daily.
It was just more than they could believe. It was like the first time you heard
that someone you loved was dead in some accidentand you just couldn't
believe it. You see the amazing sacrifice reiteratedagain.
And then finally: the amazing sympathy. Jesus might have said to them,
"You know, it's really getting old, guys, that you don't get it." But He also
knew that built into human characteristics are defense mechanisms so we're
not so traumatized that we literally disintegrate. Physicalshock works to our
benefit. I was thrown out of a car when I was young at seventy-five miles an
hour, slid about 120 yards down the middle of the highway on my back. It
wasn't painful. I didn't feel anything. If I manage to cut my finger
somewhere I'll go, "Ouch." How in the world can I slide down a highway,
have sixty-four square inches of my back removed to the bone and not feel
anything? That's calledshock, isn't it? And somehow your body kicks into a
mode where it shuts off the pain sensors. This is a... This is a blessing. And
the same thing is true in terms of your mind, and the Lord knows there's only
so much that you can handle and then there's a sort of melt-down of your
sensibilities because you couldn't take it anymore. And so verse 45 says they
didn't understand the statement.
And what was His reactionto that? "Oh, come on, guys, let Me tell you
again." No. "And it was concealedfrom them so they might not perceive it."
The reasonthey didn't understand it is they just couldn't handle it. And
rather than the Lord say, "Well you might not like it but I'm going to tell you
all the details," it says here, "It was concealed,"passive, itwas concealed.

Well, there's a big debate about how it was concealed. That's pretty simple
how it was concealed. There's onlyone person who knew the future. Who was
that? Jesus Christ, right? He's the only one who knew the future. So when
He said, "I'm going to be delivered into the hands of men," namely the chief
priests, scribes and elders, "suffermany things," only He knew what they
were and therefore only He could concealthem. So here you have the High
Priest, the tender High Priest, the compassionate Lord, withholding
information that would be way too devastating for them to handle. If they
knew all the things that were going to happen, they would have run even then
and they would have missed their last six months of training. It was bad
enough after the training. They still fled. But at leastthey fled after the
training and they were all re-gatheredafter the resurrectionand everything
made sense. It was concealedfrom them, parakaluptō, by divine action. The
Lord held it back from them.
There's an illustration of that in the 18th chapter of Luke, just quickly. Luke
18:31, "And He took the twelve aside and saidto them, 'Behold, we're going to
Jerusalem. All things which are written through the prophets about the Son of
Man will be accomplished." Now they're getting close now. They're headed
to Jerusalem. "He'll be delivered to the Gentiles and be mockedand
mistreated and spit on and after they've scourgedHim they'll kill Him, and
the third day He'll rise again." He's still telling the same thing, they're getting
close, as you know, at this point because they're just moving into Jerusalemat
this time. Verse 34, "And they understood none of these things and this
saying was hidden from them and they did not comprehend the things that
were said." The Lord didn't force the issue. The Lord Himself hid it from
them because there was just too much for them to bear. The Lord allowed
their self-protective disbelief to shelter them and shield them from too greata
sorrow and too greatan anxiety that would have literally turned them into
people with ongoing panic attacks. And they, of course, it says at the end of
verse 45, were afraid to ask Him about the statement. They didn't want any
more information. He didn't give them any more.

Folks:One of the sweetmercies ofthe Lord is that you don't know the future.
That is a sweetmercy. It would eliminate... If you knew the future, you
couldn't enjoy anything because everybody's future in the end is sad. You
wouldn't have any of the joy of anticipation. You know, we live our whole life
in this wonderful euphoria of anticipation. And no matter what we anticipate,
the anticipation is always better than the event because whenyou finally getto
the event, you have to pull out your credit card. Have you noticed that? And
not only is that a bad experience, but then when the deal is over, you're back
saying, "What was all the anticipation about?" Now you've got to pay the
thing. I love anticipation. I don't care about events as much, but I love
anticipation. I love surprise. Don't you like surprise? How would you like to
live in a world with no surprises, no planning, no preparing, just go through
what is already prescribed? Who wants to live that way? What a horrible
way to live. And not only would I have to suffer all the bad things now that
exist, but I'd have to suffer in anticipation of everything bad that's coming
aheadthat I know about. Nobody could live with that. I don't need all the
excruciating details of the moment, let alone the future.
They couldn't handle more than they were living in the moment, and I can't
handle more than I'm living at the moment and it's the sweetmercy of the
Lord that I only know what I need to know for now. I don't want to know the
future. The Lord doesn'tgive me any more details than I can handle. And
somedaydown the road as it all unfolds, it will come to make sense. Itreally
will. Even on the road to Emmaus, He said towardthe end as He gets down to
the GreatCommission, He says, "All of this that happened is what I told you."
He says to them in Luke 24:44, "These are My words which I spoke to you
while I was with you.’ Now look back at it. Oh, now when the trauma was
over and He was alive and out of the grave, and the fear was gone, they could
look back and He explained it. Ah, now we see. Thatwas enough.
He's amazing to me, this living Christ, amazing power, amazing sacrifice,
amazing sympathy. Our conquering sovereign, our crucified Savior, our

compassionatesympathizer, as you gaze at His glory, as His glory expands, so
does the potential by the Spirit's work for you to become like Him. What a
glorious promise.
Father, we thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ. We thank You for the
majesty. We see in Him the majesty, the greatness ofGod. We are in awe of
Him. Fill our lives with the vision of Christ. Maywe be consumed with
Christ to the point of utter self-denial, to say, “Forme to live is Christ. To die
is gain.” May Christ be all in all to us. May we be lostin wonder, love, and
praise. And now as we come to look at Him in the cross againand be
reminded of His sacrifice as we share in the bread and the cup, we confess
our...our sins, our transgressions. Washus, cleanse us so that we do not
partake in an unworthy way.
RICH CATHERS
9:43-45 Coming Betrayal
:43 And they were all amazed at the majesty of God. But while everyone
marveled at all the things which Jesus did, He said to His disciples,
:43 they were all amazed
amazed – ekplesso– expel by a blow, to castoff by a blow
We would say, “they were all blown away”.
They have seenJesus’amazing powerat work when He castout this demon
and healedthe boy.
…But Jesus is going to change the subject.

:44 “Let these words sink down into your ears, for the Sonof Man is about to
be betrayed into the hands of men.”
:44 Let these words sink down into your ears
Jesus wants the guys to pay particular attention to what He is about to say.
He is going to be betrayed and He will be put to death.
:45 But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so
that they did not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this
saying.
:45 they did not understand this saying
Don’t get discouragedif you don’t understand the things God has been doing
in your life or saying to you.
The disciples didn’t understand everything either.
:44 the Son of Man is about to be betrayed
Lesson
The biggerpicture
We too can getall caughtup in the amazing, miraculous power of God to do
above and beyond what we could ask or think.
Yet don’t forgetwhat was on the top of Jesus’priorities
He is starting His journey to Jerusalem.
He is going to be betrayed.
He is going to die.
He is going to let this happen on purpose.
I think sometimes we can lose sight of what God considers to be the most
important thing.

I hope that after the Paris terrorist attack, people are going to be thinking
about what is truly important in life.
As much as we want the pain to be healedand the suffering to end, there is
something more important to God’s heart than the suffering you are currently
experiencing.
God is more concernedthat you are ready for eternity with Him.
This is why Jesus came to the earth and took on human flesh in the first place.
He came in order to pay for our sins, to make it possible for man to once again
become connectedto God.
As difficult as you might think your life is, it is nothing compared to an
eternity being separatedfrom God.
When we lose perspective, sometimes cruelthings can be said to people who
might not be healed.
Even though our “demon boy” wasn’thealed because ofa lack of faith, that’s
not always why God doesn’t heal. Sometimes it is simply not God’s will for
them to be healedat that time.
When Paul beggedfor healing three times, God said,
(2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV) “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is
made perfect in weakness.”
Illustration
There was a lady who calledin on one of those radio Bible programs. The
pastor was a wise, grandfatherly gentlemanwho had that calm reassuring
voice that can melt all fear. The lady, who was obviously crying, said, “Pastor,
I was born blind, and I’ve been blind all my life. I don’t mind being blind but
I have some well-meaning friends who tell me that if I had more faith I could
be healed.” The pastoraskedher, “Tellme, do you carry one of those white
canes?”“Yes I do,” she replied. “Then the next time someone says that, hit

them over the head with the cane,” He said. “Then tell them ‘If you had more
faith that wouldn’t hurt!’”
Joni EarecksonTada was paralyzedfrom the neck down in a diving accident
when she was seventeenyears old. That was forty-nine years ago.
She has continued to be an example that you don’t have to give up if God
choosesnotto bring the healing you are seeking.Listen carefully…
Video: Case forFaith – Joni EarecksonTada
Joni has learnedin her life that intimacy with God is more valuable than
getting out of her wheelchair.
Intimacy with God only comes through Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He
made when He was betrayed and crucified on the cross.
Let me challenge you today.
God can indeed “fix” your problems and amaze you.
But don’t ignore the most important thing God wants to do for you.
God wants you to actually know Him intimately.
There is nothing more important in life.
Let these words “sink down” into your heart.

Luke: Amazed by the Greatness ofGod
Sermon by J. Ligon Duncan on March7, 2010
Luke 9:37-45
O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good.
His steadfastlove endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord sayso, whom He has redeemedfrom trouble
and gatheredfrom the lands, from the eastand from the west, from the north
and
from the south. Let us worship Him.
If you have your Bibles I’d invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 9.
We’re going to be looking at verses 37 to 45.
Make sure you look back to verses 28 to 36 which records the passagewe
were in the last time we were togetherin the gospelofLuke which is the story
of Jesus’transfiguration. This is
the one time in Jesus’earthly ministry that something of the full glory of who
He was shone through and only three people saw it, three human beings that
lived
and ministered with Him, His inner circle — Peter, James, and John.
Of course, Mosesand Elijah saw it as well, but they were already in
glory, so three people on earth for a brief moment saw something of the
fullness

of the glory of Christ shine through.
By the way, I think that ought to tell us something about our own lives and
ministries here. Very often the Lord
simply calls on us to be faithful here, never ever to be recognizedfor that
faithfulness. Jesus, only on this
mountain, only for a brief time, did three people, who were then told not to
tell anybody about it, see the fullness of His glory in His ministry.
I think mothers perhaps especiallyneed to take that in.
Often times you’re calledto give the best and the whole of your adult
lives to invest in children and you may never wellsee the reasonand the
results of your ministry in their lives in its fullness, and yet you’re called
to pour yourselves into them and wait for the Lord’s “Well done, My good
and
faithful servant.” And it may not
come in this life. But for all of
us, isn’t that a lesson? Thatno
matter what we’re calledto in this life, we’re calledto faithfulness.
We may never have that moment where the glory of what God is making us
into or the glory of what God is using our service for shine through for
everyone to see. But we don’t live
for that day. We live for the day

when every knee bows and every tongue confessesthatJesus Christ is Lord
and
where the fullness of what we’ve done will be shone for what it is.
So we see there the transfiguration of Jesus Christ.
That’s the context of the passagethatwe’re going to read today.
Now the passage thatwe’re going to read today has two parts.
The first part you’ll see in verses 37 down to about the middle part of
verse 43 and that is the story of the healing of this boy with an unclean
spirit. This boy is possessedby a
demon that is brutally abusing him and Jesus’disciples are not able to cast
out
that demon. Hold that thought, and
by the way, if you’re cheating, allow yourself to go back and look at the first
verse of chapter 9, because it is the first verse of chapter 9 that provides the
context for Jesus’disciples failure to be able to heal this boy and it explains
why Jesus says something that may confuse you in this passage.
Jesus says something to His disciples when the man comes to them.
Do you remember what the man says?
He says, “Jesus, I’m coming to You because my boy is demon possessedand
Your disciples weren’t able to do anything about it.”
And then Jesus says something.
You’ll scratchyour heads about it if you haven’t read verse 1 or if you

don’t remember verse 1 of chapter 9.
So there’s the first part of the chapter.
The secondpart picks up in the secondhalf of verse 43 and goes downto verse
45. Here Jesus says something about
His death. Now these two incidents
may look unrelated, but I want to suggestto you that they are closelyrelated.
The inability of the disciples to heal this boy and then in the second
half the inability of the disciples to understand and believe something that
Jesus is saying is going to happen to Him.
What I’m going to suggestto you is there is a battle in this passageforbelief
and in both casesit’s a battle for believing to be true what Jesus has said.
In the first instance, the battle to believe what is true, what Jesus has
said about their authority to heal and to castout demons.
The secondhalf of the story, the ability of the disciples to believe
what is true, what Jesus has said about His owndeath.
Now He’s already started, He’s already started to teachthem about His
own death. We’ve seenthat even in
this passage. AfterJesus is
confessedby Peter, if you look back at verses 21 and 22, immediately what
does
Jesus say? “The Sonof Man must

suffer.” So He’s already startedto
teachthem about His death in this passagebut we’re going to find out what
they’re having a hard time even understanding that — we’re told that in the
secondpart of this passage.
So what we have
going on in this passageis a battle about unbelief.
Now it’s specific to the circumstances that are going on in Jesus’life
and ministry but there are things for us to learn about right here and now and
about our lives and the battle of unbelief from this passagebecause it’s God’s
Word and it’s inerrant and it’s infallible and it is given to us for our
edification. So let’s pray and ask
for God’s help and blessing before we read it.
Heavenly
Father this is Your Word. Open our
eyes to see wonderful things in it by Your Holy Spirit.
We ask for Your Holy Spirit not because there is some deficiency in Your
Word. There’s not.
Your Word is perfect. There’s
not a flaw in it. But there is a
flaw in our hearts and that flaw in our hearts makes it hard for us to believe

what is true, even when it’s put right before our eyes.
So we ask the Holy Spirit to help us overcome our own sin and doubt and
to believe Your Word and to understand it, in Jesus’name.
Amen.
This is God’s Word beginning in Luke 9:37:
“On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great
crowdmet
Him. And behold, a man from the
crowdcried out, ‘Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only
child.
And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out.
It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth; and shatters him, and
will hardly leave him. And I begged
Your disciples to castit out, but they could not.’
Jesus answered, ‘O faithless and twistedgeneration, how long am I to be
here with you and bear with you?
Bring your son here.’ While he was
coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him.
But Jesus rebukedthe unclean spirit and healedthe boy, and gave him
back to his father. And all were
astonishedat the majestyof God.

But while they were all marveling at everything He was doing, Jesus saidto
His
disciples, ‘Let these words sink into your ears:
The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.’
But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealedfrom them,
so that they might not perceive it.
And they were afraid to ask Him about this saying.”
Amen, and thus ends this reading of God’s holy, inspired, and inerrant Word.
May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.
Do you believe that God is sovereignoveryour troubles?
Or, when you are in the midst of your troubles do you wonder if your
troubles are biggerthan God?
And if you don’t wonder if your troubles are biggerthan God, do you actlike
they are?
I think this passagehas something to teach us about that very struggle and I
think it’s a struggle that almostall of us have from time to time.
And I think this passageunfolds that struggle in three phases.

I. We live in a fallen
world.
First of all, I think it unfolds that struggle by reminding us that we live in a
fallen world and you see this almost immediately.
If you look at verse 37, Jesus and His disciples had just come down from
the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus’glory has shone through and
they’ve
seensomething of the awesomenessofwho He is, and we read, look at verse
37,
“On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain.”
Luke is reminding you that they’ve just come down from the Mount of
Transfigurationwhere they’ve seenthis amazing display of Jesus’glory.
“On the next day, when they came down from the mountain they meet a great
crowdand with them is a man with a son who is possessedby the demon.”
In other words, Luke leads you right from the Mount of Transfiguration
right back down into the trouble of every day life.
Now, frankly, this is where Jesus typically lived.
Jesus, we’re told in this passage, wentaround healing the sick and
casting out demons and coming to the aid of those who were trapped in their
struggles and in bondage to Satan.

This is the world that Jesus lived and ministered in.
It was a world filled with trouble and Luke is drawing attention to that
here.
The norm is not what was happening on the Mount of Transfiguration, where
Jesus’
glory is apparent to all, where there is a momentary cessationofhostilities
with the world forces ofdarkness and of demons and this time of worship in
the
very presence ofMoses and Elijah, and more than that, in the very presence
of
the One who is the Son of God. No,
the norm for our experiences is what Jesus met when He came down from the
mountain. It’s trouble.
We live in a world of trouble.
Now here’s the problem.
When we’re not in trouble or at leastwhen we’re not aware ofhow much
trouble we’re in, we begin to think that that’s the norm for our lives.
And then when trouble comes
along we’re surprised. “This isn’t
supposedto be happening to me!”
And then when trouble does come along, we start asking a different
question.

“Lord, why are You letting this happen
to me?” We’re not only
surprised by the trouble, we start wondering if God is in control because if
God
were in control we’re thinking, “This shouldn’t be happening to me.”
And Luke is presenting for us a
circumstance that is the norm in the fallen world.
In this case it’s a man who has a demon possessedson.
And Jesus sighs and cares with us and for us in this fallen world.
It’s so interesting isn’t it, that Jesus’immediate reactionis, “Bring
that child to Me. This is what I’m
here for. I’m here sighing with you.
I’m here caring for you. I’ll
do something about that. I know you
live in a world of trouble. I know
you live in a world of trouble that’s beyond you.
That’s what I’m here for. I’m
able to deal with this. This doesn’t
take Me by surprise at all.”
But it takes us by surprise. And we
need to pause and remember that that is the world that we live in.

We live in a fallen world. We
don’t live in the world of the age to come when all of these things are going to
be taken awayand there’s going to be no more tears and no more sighing and
no
more sorrow and no more trouble.
That’s not the world we live in. We
live in the here and now. And when
we’re going through those seasons oflife where trouble isn’t just falling in on
our shoulders, we need to remember, “Well, that’s a blessing from the Lord
because normally in this life it’s a life filled with trouble.”
Trouble is not the exception to the rule now.
It’s the rule. And so we
shouldn’t be surprised when it comes becausewe live in a fallen world, and
Luke
is reminding us of that ,even as he brings us down the mountain and back into
the normal situations of life where there’s this man bringing a child cruelly
demon possessed.
II. Our response to
God’s sovereignty.
The secondwaythat God teaches us about how we respond to His sovereignty
in

our trouble in this passage is He focuses us on a story of a man whose son, his
only child, was in a terrible predicament, possessedofan evil spirit.
And we see something, I think, for Jesus’concernforyoung people in
this passage. And isn’t it
interesting how often the spiritual battlefield that we fight is a spiritual
battlefield that involves our young people.
Now, I don’t know all the reasons why that is.
I suspectthat one of the reasons that Satanchoosesour young people as
the spiritual battlefield on which he likes to fight is because ouryoung people
are so dear to us and he likes to strike us at the place where it hurts us the
most. I suspectalso that it is a fertile field for his victory because young
people have not developed in the maturity so that they canknow how to fight
back Biblically in the way that they ought to fight back.
And I’m not attempting to make this as the ultimate paradigm, but it is
very clearthat there is a spiritual battle going on here.
And it’s not an exception in Jesus’ministry.
Think how often this happens.
There’s the daughter of Jairus.
There’s the nobleman’s son at Capernaum.
There’s the daughter of the Canaanite orthe Syrophonecianwoman.
There’s the widow’s son at Nain.

Over and over in Jesus’ministry there’s this situation where young
people, and even children, are being brought to Jesus for ministry.
And it’s appropriate that we would do this on a morning where there’re
children behind me and where there’s a child who’s been baptized and there
will
be six more baptized. How often is
the battlefield circling around our young people, the spiritual battlefield in
life? And Jesus shows a deepconcern
for these young people. When this
man with a son, his only child who is cruelly demon possessed, comes to Jesus
and begs for help, Jesus says, “Bring him to Me.”
Jesus has a deep concernfor young people and there are many things that we
can
learn from that, but I want to suggestthis — if this man, in the midst of that
spiritual battlefield brought his son to Jesus, oughtnot we, who say that we
believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, bring our children to Him in prayer?
I love what J.C. Ryle says about this.
He says,
“There are many Christian fathers and
mothers at this day who are just as miserable about their children as the man
of
whom we are reading. The sonwho was

once the desire of their eyes and in whom their lives were bound up turns into
a
spendthrift or a prodigal or profligate and a companion of sinners, and the
daughter who was once the flower of the family and of whom they said, ‘This
girl
shall be our comfort in old age’becomes selfwilled and worldly minded and a
lover of pleasure more than a lover of God and their hearts are very wellnear
broken. An iron seems to enter into
their souls and the devil appears to triumph over them and rob them of their
choicestjewels andthey are ready to cry, ‘I’ll go to my grave sorrowing.
What goodshall my life do to me now?’
Now what should a father or mother do in a case like this?
They should do as the man before us did.
They should go to Jesus in prayer and cry to Him about their child.
They should spreadbefore that merciful Saviorthe tale of their sorrows
and entreatHim to help them. Great
is the powerof prayer and intercession.
The child of many prayers shall seldom be castaway.
God’s time of conversionmay not be ours.
He may think fit to prove our faith by keeping us long waiting, but so
long as a child lives and a parent prays, we have no right to finally despair
about that child’s soul.”

Jesus was scaring his disciples

Jesus was scaring his disciples

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