Luke 9:37-45
Jesus is the only son of God, and therefore, rules by authority. And yet, He still teaches us by example. When we study Him throughout scripture, we’re in awe of the grace He extends towards us, and the truths of His Word He continues to share with us.
Grab your bibles and turn if you would this morning to Luke chapter nine.
Luke chapter nine verses 37 to 45 this morning. And wow, it’s about the Majesty of Jesus Christ.
You said, well, Jack, didn’t we study that last week because we saw him on the mount of transfiguration.
He was transfigured there. How much, how much more majesty can you get?
I mean, that’s majestic, isn’t it? Yeah. But remember how that happened? He went up to the mountain.
We know that it’s mount Hermon. Very high mountains scaling up over 9500 ft high in Israel.
There has snow on it. Most of the year he went up there to pray. Remember?
And as he was praying, it was awesome.
As he was praying, the Bible says that his face began to change in its appearance. He began to glow.
Peter James and John were there but they were sleeping. I mean, what else do they do?
Every time Jesus goes and prays, you know, the disciples go to sleep.
He’s praying, they’re sleeping, but they wake up just in time because the scripture says that as he prayed his countenance and his robe illuminated and in prayer, Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke to him concerning his Exodus, remember what his Exodus was his coming death and he spoke to, they spoke to him, Peter James and John looked on and watched onto this amazing moment where we learned something out of the original Greek language that is most powerful that when Jesus was praying, heaven did not descend, heaven did not come down in the sense that he was enveloped in this incredible cloud of glory.
No, in fact, what’s very interesting is almost the opposite is that as Jesus was praying, the word in the Greek means that he began to illuminate from the inside out.
Jesus began to glow from the inside out and the very glory, the cloud, the sakina is this presence of God.
Where in that it says Moses and Elijah appeared inside of it and how awesome that is.
You see, well, how more majestic can that be? Here’s the glorious thing about our awesome Jesus.
He’s not only illuminated in this beautiful splendor on top of a mountain, but when he comes down into what we’re going to be reading about in the debates, difficult things of life, hard day living things, Jesus’s majestic presence is still experienced.
He may look different or maybe even today, the servant of the Lord may look different.
Maybe it’s somebody sitting next to you. In fact, how many of you are Christians?
You raise your hand this morning, I need to see.
It’s awesome to see those hands because though Jesus be gone, ascended, risen there in heaven above his ministry continues to the hands and the feet of all of us today who just raised our hands until he comes again.
What an, what an amazing mission we have. But how will we ever do this?
How can we ever display the Majesty of God?
It’s done through service and it’s done through the power of the Holy Spirit.
As we shall see in our study this morning, the Majesty of Jesus Christ beginning at verse 37.
There it says now it happened on the next day when they had come down from the mountain that a great multitude met him and suddenly a man from the multitude cried out saying, teacher, I implore you, look on my son for he is my only child and behold a spirit seizes him and suddenly cries out and convulses him so that he foams at the mouth and it departs from him with great difficulty bruising him.
And so I implored your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.
Then Jesus answered and said, o faithless and perverse generation.
How long shall I be with you and bear with you, bring your son here and as he was still coming, that is the sun, The demon threw him down and he convulsed him.
Then jesus rebuked the unclean spirit healed the child and gave him back to his father.
And they were all amazed at the majesty of God.
But while everyone marveled at all the things which Jesus did his, he said to his disciples, verse 44, let these words sink down into your ears.
For the son of man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.
But they did not understand the same and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it.
And they were afraid to ask him about the same.
The Majesty of Christ, Noah Webster in his great 18 28 dictionary.
By the way, by this dictionary, you can buy it online. Now. I think it’s like 50 bucks.
Noah Webster wrote the English language for the American Nation in 18 28 the official book of English language.
Listen to what? No. And here’s why I push it. I don’t get any royalties for it.
You know why I always push this dictionary is because I’m gonna read you just a little bit of the definition.
He puts their for Majesty, listen to this. I’ll read it all to you here. I mean all that.
I have a little portion Majesty.
It’s from the Latin from the root negus major more the greater greatness of appearance, dignity and grandeur, dignity of aspect or manner, the quality or state of a person or thing which inspires awe or reverence in the beholder, applied with particular propriety to God and all of his works, for example, as in the Jehovah or, or as example in Jehovah Reigneth.
He is clothed with Majesty Psalm 93 as in the voice of Jehovah is full of Majesty Psalm 29.
That’s Noah Webster’s dictionary. Is that not great.
We ought to bring back the original dictionary and put that in our schools with Bible in it.
I love it. Majesty. Something that inspires awe and reverence.
What a great thing we’re gonna be looking at three points this morning.
Number one regarding the Majesty of Christ found in verses 37 to 41.
And that is our Majestic Jesus rules by example, what a great God we have in Christ, Jesus.
He rules by example. We’ve told you time and time again that when you look at Jesus Christ, you’re looking at the very nature and expression, the Effervescence of God and his complete totality.
When you look at the manifestation, as the Bible says that blessed are the pure in heart for, they shall see God.
What does that mean? The Bible means that in the end when eternity begins and the believer stands before God, we will somehow see.
Don’t ask me to explain that I can’t, we will somehow see God in this totality, Father Son, Holy spirit, three manifestations of personality, one God, an absolute miracle.
The Bible speaks about this amazing presence of Christ Jesus that when you look and listen and see what He does about all of us, what’s recorded in the Bible, you’re looking and watching and hearing the very voice of God and the very nature of God.
When Jesus says woe to you scribes and Pharisees, he warns them, that’s the warning of God coming from the throne above when Jesus is go now and sin no more for I do not condemn you.
That’s the mercy and the grace of God speaking.
When you want to know what God is like, you look to Christ And that’s very important Jesus and his majestic rule.
He does. So by example, his example is that he’s ready mark that down. Would you his majestic rules?
Is this his example to us is that he’s always ready says in verse 37.
Now it happened on the next day, next day of what uh the day after the transfiguration, they came down the mountain when they had come down from the mountain that a great multitude met him.
And suddenly a man from the multitude cried out saying, teacher, I implore you. I beg of you.
I beseech you look on my son for he is my only child. This is beautiful in the Greek language.
This is what he says, Jesus, I’m begging of you listen to this.
I want you to look at my son, the son of me.
He said, what does that mean? The father is saying?
This boy look, this boy, he’s the expression of me. He’s the announcement of me.
This is my child and I only have one.
This is the child that from his earliest years I raised up, I brought up.
He is the expression of my values. He’s the expression of my loves. He’s the expression of my thoughts.
He’s the expression of my person.
This is my only boy and I don’t have anybody else say, why is that important?
Because do you remember on the mountain last week when we were studying?
And Peter said it’s good for us to be here. Let us build three tents. Remember how Peter was interrupted?
God says this is my only son or this is my son. Hear him.
The word in Greek is always and only hear him. This is the son of me.
This is the sun that expresses my thoughts, my words, it’s his hands, it’s his feet that are like my hands and my feet.
If the father or the spirit were down on earth, look to Jesus. He’s saying, isn’t this a beautiful thing?
You’ve got two fathers, one in heaven above one on the earth beneath?
You’ve got one son who was the only son of me.
And then you have the other son who is the only son of me.
One is gloriously forever, the eternal God.
And the other one is a child that this father does not know what will become of a possessed demonized and brutalized by a very, very wicked spirit to opposite ends of the spectrum if there ever were.
And here’s Jesus, by example, teaching us, you and I and the disciples to always be ready and you need to mark this in advance because it’s not going to come together until we come to the end.
How are we always going to be ready? How is it that Jesus in? This is always ready.
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And for now let’s get back to our teaching once again, here’s pastor Jack.
So as they come there, the man cries out teacher, I implore you.
I beg of you. In first John 5 13 great verse. You hear it a lot.
First John 5 13 says that these things I have written unto you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may listen, continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
That word continue is that once you hear what you hear about the Lord, you continue to build upon that yesterday.
I had whole wheat pancakes with peanut butter and syrup on them. Did I have one?
No, did I have to. I mean I did.
But you stack them up, you stack them up the taller the stack, the better it tastes, especially in the middle.
When you hear about the teachings of Jesus from the word of God, it’s one pancake of truth upon the other.
And you build that great pillar of truth from the word of God in your life is assembled and you God’s truth more, you eat of it more, you take of it stronger.
You get faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God, right?
And you grow jesus’ example is that he has been teaching these disciples all along the way.
And you’re gonna be saying, well man, you know, isn’t this kind of harsh, we’ll just wait a moment.
They’re in first John that says that you may continue to believe build upon what God is revealing from His word into your life.
Build, build, build, don’t stop growing. That is all important for what God is going to show to us.
Number two versus 39 to 40. His example is being available.
His example is being available, not only being ready but being available and behold the spirit seizes him.
That is this demon spirit grabs the kid.
The word here seizes to bind him up to afflict the child in such a way that the kid is kept chained up but not physical chains.
It’s a spiritual dark cloud around him. Now, listen, do you remember last week when Jesus prayed?
And there’s a great glorious cloud that formed around them and Peter got all excited and began to talk and say things.
He didn’t even know he was talking about that glory that ensconced them.
We talked about that from floor to ceiling, from left to right. They were in it.
This is the same thing for this poor kid being seized in a dark cloud.
This child is swallowed up by demonic attack.
The spirit seizes him and he suddenly cries out, convulses him so that he foams at the mouth and it departs from him with great difficulty bruising him.
So the man said, verse 40 I begged implored Basat your disciples to cast him out, but they could not what a radical thing that is in Mark chapter nine, verse 18, verse 17 and 18, same event covered by Mark.
Mark said this also was happening.
The kid was also because of the demon, mute and deaf man, mute and deaf.
He goes on and whenever it seizes him, it throws him down. Matthew says it throws him.
Sometimes the demon throws the kid into the water and tries to drown him.
And then sometimes it says that the demon throws him into fire and burns him.
This kid is freaked out terrorized.
Another gospel tells us that this has been happening from his youth from, from his earliest days at times, it says that he foams at the mouth in Mark’s Gospel and that he nashes upon himself with his own teeth.
I have friends who work in the mental hospitals and they see that happen, he becomes rigid so that your disciples that I asked him cast out the demon and they could not do it.
This kid is terrorized. What a stinging conviction this word must have brought to the disciples. Now, stop right there.
He got this going on.
You got Jesus on the mountain glowing and you got Peter James and John having a great time while all that’s going on.
You’ve got the rest of the disciples down at the bottom of the hill, dealing with all the stuff that’s going on and to make it worse.
Mark’s gospel tells us that describes the Pharisees. They were, they’re contending with the disciples. You know what that means.
They’re fighting with them. You got this demon possessed kid, a huge crowd and you’re trying to help the kid and then you’ve got these scribes and Pharisees mocking and making fun and attacking you while you’re trying to do the right thing.
This is a very sad setting.
Jesus comes down the mountain with Peter James and John and steps into this thing.
They were unable to do anything about it.
Thirdly, under this point, listen to this, his example that he shows to us is empowerment, empowered, the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now watch this. You need to say, stay still and figure this out for a second.
Then Jesus answered and said, and I want to make this clear.
He doesn’t say it to the man and he doesn’t say it to the crowd. Jesus addresses his disciples.
It’s very key, the structure of this.
And I have to give you that because you’re gonna think man, he’s a little hard, isn’t he? Wait?
Oh, faithless and perverse generation. How long shall I bear with you? How long shall I be with you?
How long shall I bear with you? Bring your son here?
So it looks like this o unbelieving or faithless and perverse generation. He’s speaking to the disciples.
How long do I have to hold your hand through everything?
Then he turns to the man and says, bring your son here. See what’s going on here.
This is a rebuke. Very strong. Can you imagine Jesus saying this to you? Would you rather just cry?
Why is he being so hard? Because church look back, stay in chapter nine.
Look back to verse two. This is why Jesus brings this right upper jab right into their sleepy little spirit.
He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Did they not go?
They went, were they not successful? They were successful. Another gospel tells us over the same account.
He sent them out to preach the gospel, heal the sick and cast out demons.
Did they not go do it? They did it. They got all excited.
Oh man, we’ve got all this power then came back. All excited. Did Jesus go with them?
Nope, they went on their own.
They did their thing, they were great, they were anointed, they did it worked.
Listen, what’s happened now, you see this is why Jesus turns to them and really, really gets their attention because some church listen, some very insidious monster is at work and it’s not the demon, it’s not Satan.
There’s some super great power going on. It’s not God.
There is a power so powerful and so dark and let me say this, it is so tolerated by myself and by you that we don’t recognize how dangerous and vicious it is.
Jesus sent them out to minister and verse two, they went out and ministered and came back with perfect success.
Might I add Judas included. But now they can’t do a thing.
The reason why is because they had left the power of God at home.
This is the difference. The ministry demands were the same, the demonic powers, all of them brought under the very controlled and the authority of Christ and his glorious power.
No doubt about that. But what’s different? Listen to this. The word faithless means that they became unbelieving.
It means they became doubters. It means that they became ones who wavered.
The word also has translated, you became unconfident or you became unsure, you were once confident.
And now you’re not interesting because when they went out the first time they had never done this before, are you starting to see the clue?
They had never done it? Before. They were simply obeying Jesus. So what did they do?
They only did what he said to do. They were shocked when it happened.
They gave glory to God and came home and said, wow, what this implies now with all this stuff going on, they didn’t do it in the total dependence upon the Lord.
It means that they departed from full dependence upon God. My friend.
Are you frail and weak and dependent upon God today? If you are, you are mighty in the Lord.
Are you scared? Are you being plagued by things that are bigger than you?
Listen, you’ve got in your fear and in your terror, you can run to the pillars of the feet of Christ and cry out to him and he will move heaven and earth to free you up.
But if you think you can handle it on your own, guess what? You will handle it on your own.
He’ll just, he’ll just let you do it. He’ll let you flounder. You’re not gonna make it.
The disciples. What’s implied is that they launched out?
And without, in fact, you know this, remember when Joshua, the sons of a, I came to Joshua, I mean, not the sons of Ai, the uh who are those guys?
Remember? They didn’t want to, they didn’t want to fight with Israel.
So they came over the top of the hill and they said, look, our bread’s all moldy.
Our shoes are all worn out, we came from so far away to sign a peace treaty with you because we don’t want you guys to attack us.
And little did Joshua know that they just lived on that side of the hill.
And so it says Joshua says, okay, let’s have a contract of peace. We’ll write it down.
And the Lord says, Joshua, you are in big trouble because these guys tricked you and you didn’t consult me, You didn’t talk to me about it.
And the Bible says that those people were a thorn in Israel’s flesh forevermore.
We can be like that. I got it. God, I don’t need it.
I think you’re so busy running the universe. I’ll take this one.
Oh man, when we are, when we are self dependent, we’re gonna lose the disciples.
What’s implied here is they said, okay, excuse me. Everybody calm down.
Now, remember Peter James and John are up on the mountain with Jesus. The other guys, it’s okay.
Calm down. This guy’s possessed. We’ve seen this before. We’ve seen this before.
We’ll take care of it in the name of Jesus Christ. Come out of him.
Hm. Eeny, meeny, Miny Moe, something had come up within them.
It wasn’t some demon in the disciples. It wasn’t Satan being greater. It was none of that.
It doesn’t take that. All it takes us for you.
And I to feel as believers is to think I can handle this life on my own.
Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on real life radio with his message called The Majesty of Jesus Christ.
Thanks for being with us today. You know this message.
The Majesty of Jesus Christ is part of Pastor Jack series called The Gospel of Luke.
It’s a series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
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