The Gospel of Luke 9:1-11 Sending, Herod Antipas & Bethsaida

Good morning. Before we proceed into Luke 9, 1 through 11, I just want to also bring to mind Roy is with a group of, I believe the number is over 30 now, that are headed up to Stanley Mission in Grandmother's Bay. And so we just want to pray for their time there. It will be about two weeks when the group will be up there. And it's with the Indian tribe that is located up in that area. So we can keep them in our prayers. Let's look at this passage here, 9, 1-11, that Randy read for us.

There are some things to compare and contrast first between Matthew's account and Dr. Luke's account here. Dr. Luke and the Apostle Matthew both have the account of Jesus sending out the twelve disciples to proclaim the kingdom and to perform miracles like Christ had done. So they were essentially following in what Christ had given by example. Matthew has the listing of the twelve apostles in the account, whereas Dr. Luke had placed it earlier in chapter 6, so we won't be going over that at this point. Dr. Luke also wrote about the thoughts and wondering of Herod Antipas, as did Mark as well, and so that's a little different from what you see in Matthew.

Matthew's account also has Jesus telling his disciples to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And that's something that is distinctive in comparison to Dr. Luke. And he doesn't say in this account with Luke, don't go to the road that leads to the Samaritans or the Gentiles.

And the reason why Matthew said that is his book was written to the Jews explicitly. Dr. Luke, as we'll see, is doing something different. Dr. Luke is the one author of the New Testament that appears to be a Gentile and a God-fearing Gentile until he was saved by faith in Christ. He's writing to God-fearing Gentiles. He makes no mention of only going to the Jews in Israel because that's not his focus. He's writing to those who are God-fearing Gentiles, that is, those who have an appreciation that comes from a perspective of Judaism, but they're in fact Gentile and not Jews. Next, while Dr. Luke uses the term Kingdom of God to refer to the yet-to-come Millennial Kingdom, Matthew uses the term kingdom of heaven. Now there's a reason for switching there. Those terms are synonyms.

There was a Jewish concern that if you said the name God that you might mistakenly use the name of God in vain. So the way it was taken care of was to use the word heaven as a kind of a euphemism for God. Even today you'll see in Jewish websites where they'll spell God G-D, right? And that way they avoid the possible error of saying the name of God in vain. In truth, this heaven as a euphemism for the name of God is something we actually have adopted in our own culture. We will, instead of saying, oh God, people will say, oh heavens, right? And so people, you know, say instead of God knows, they'll say heaven knows. And so we actually have a cultural expression that comes off of the Jewish hesitation to pronounce the name of God. Dr. Luke writing to God-fearing Gentiles doesn't have that same cultural concern.

So he says, you know, Kingdom of God, and puts that in there directly. Matthew is the one who, writing to the Jews, uses the term Kingdom of Heaven. And just to be clear, we have this diagram here that shows what we mean by the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven. It starts with the first coming of Christ, in which He was crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended. We have, from that time on, the Church Age, right? which has gone on for centuries now.

Imagine, here's the disciples after getting very badly rattled by Jesus being crucified and buried and resurrected, even though he told them about it in advance numerous times. They finally kind of get their minds settled and they ask, this is Acts chapter 1, is now the time when you're going to establish your kingdom for Israel? Are you finally going to get around to it? And Jesus says, no, the Father knows the timing of that.

We're going to do something else here, and that's the beginning of the church. So the church age begins, and that continues until the moment of the rapture, that is when the church is taken up to be with the Lord. I hope it's today. I hope I don't get to finish this message. But the rapture is then the end of the church age.

Following that is a seven-year tribulation period. That seven-year figure comes out of the book of Daniel, as well as the book of Revelation. A seven-year period of great tribulation on the earth, at the end of which is Christ's second coming. His first coming 19-plus centuries ago. His second coming possibly as soon as seven years from now. So his second coming at the end of that tribulation period and beginning the millennial kingdom or the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven.

We say millennial kingdom because Revelation 20 has six times that says it's a thousand years. So the millennium is the idea there. The millennial kingdom. So that gives you the time sweep at the end of the millennial kingdom will be the end of this present heavens and earth and there'll be a new heavens and new earth. You also have, I believe, this diagram graphic on your handout on page one.

And it starts off with the boundary definition in Genesis 15, 18 through 21 that says, here is the territory that will be Israel in the coming millennial kingdom. And then in Ezekiel 48, it gives Israel's land by tribe. So the division of that tribe, and interestingly you see these stripes basically define the tribal allotment. Okay, so now looking at Luke and Matthew and Mark together, Matthew includes a great deal more of Christ's instruction to the disciples before he sends them out, while Mark adds that Jesus sent out the disciples in pairs.

So that's an interesting addition. We don't get that in Matthew, but you do get it in Mark. These accounts of Jesus sending out the disciples to perform miracles and to proclaim the kingdom are not the same as being sent as apostles of the church. Were they sent? Yes. And you will see the word apostles, apostles of the church. So as apostles founding and growing the church, it would be the Holy Spirit with them, not Christ here on the earth. A huge difference.

You can imagine the disciples when they go out to the Mount of Olives, and Jesus is just about to ascend, and they're asking questions like, is now the time when you're going to establish your kingdom? And they had probably many, many more questions. And then the Lord ascends. But we've got questions! Right? Lots of questions. But the Holy Spirit was to fill them in. with answers to those questions over time. It would no longer be Christ answering their questions.

So here's Luke 9, 1 and 2 as we step into the passage. And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. Luke makes a kind of a quick summary here as opposed to all the details that Matthew provides. So one of the things we see here is three verbs that come out. Jesus called his disciples together, which he had certainly done before, but this time for a different purpose. This time was for the purpose of giving them the authority to heal and proclaim.

Imagine the disciples, they've been going along learning from Jesus and listening to him and memorizing the things that he said and watching and observing. And now he was going to give them authority to go out two by two to do the very things that they had seen him do. Then he sent them out, as Mark made note, in pairs, two by two. Now think about the pairing.

I ponder this and I think, wouldn't it be humorous if, here's Matthew, he's a Roman tax collector, and you pair him up with like Simon the Zealot, who just hates the Romans, right? Interesting pairing. And then I wonder also, who got paired up with Judas? Wouldn't that later just creep you out? But there's something else to ponder here.

Did the eleven disciples go out and do these things and not Judas? Judas went there too. Isn't that astounding? When it came time for Judas to betray Jesus, none of the disciples had any clue that he was the betrayer. Isn't that amazing? The Lord even washed his feet. The Lord expressed love to Judas. Equally with the rest and that is really astounding to think about and as they go out in pairs Nobody is thinking.

Hey this Judas guy just kind of sits there He apparently is doing and saying things too But it's all for not at least for him He sent them out to the Jews as Matthew reveals to us most likely centered in the cities and towns of Galilee and One of the things that Mark reveals is that the sending out took place from Nazareth Jesus had the disciples all Go with him to Nazareth and from Nazareth. He sent them out in pairs in various places Here you have on page two the kind of the map of Sea of Galilee and the the Galilee area and so from Nazareth they would be sent out two by two and And they would go to different places. I imagine, we're not given the details, but I imagine Jesus said, okay, you two go over to there and look at these cities and the villages around there, and you two go over here, and so kind of cover the territory that way, sending them out from Nazareth.

So they were proclaiming the kingdom of God to Jews in Israel. It was to provide Jews with the opportunity to respond to the gospel of the kingdom, which we're going to talk about here, favorably. Gave them the opportunity to respond. Favorable response would look like this. They would see Jesus as the long-promised Messiah who would be king of the Jews and would be king of kings and lord of lords over the Gentile nations reigning on earth. This would be the gospel of the kingdom. Now, he sent them out for healing. Dr. Luke uses just that word healing here and at the end.

We have from some of the other Gospels other kind of nuances there. The miraculous powers of the disciples were given essentially what they had seen Christ do. Matthew and Mark give other nuances to that authority. that Jesus gave to his disciples that day. And those nuances include casting out demons and even raising the dead. How about that? They had seen Jesus more than once raise the dead. They also were given that power that day.

So here's Luke 9.3, and he said to them, take nothing for your journey, neither staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, and do not even have two tunics apiece. Now notice, he says, this is stripped down, you're not taking anything.

And so I go around looking for pictures, and guess what? Every one of them's got a staff, right? So I'm like, oh boy. Okay, look around. Hey, and here's one. Oh, this is better. Now look at that guy over on the left there. He's got a staff. I'll cut it off. All right, that'll fix it. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, this is, this is, don't even take a walking stick.

Don't take a bag. to store anything, don't take any bread with you, don't take any money, don't even have two sets of underwear. So, Jesus was sending them out with the bare essentials for this present ministry journey. Later on he would tell them other things, but right now it's don't take anything with you.

One reason for this was to teach them to go on faith in what he had told them to expect from their hosts. So it's going on faith was one thing. Next, however, the other reason is because the reception of these messengers and the message was pivotal to whether the gospel of the kingdom was being received and embraced or not. That was the issue. And so you want to derive your support, he was telling them, from those you're staying with and they need to take complete care of you And that will be not only a fulfillment of what I told you, but it will also be their declaration of we are receiving and embracing the gospel of the kingdom, providing complete support. Now this tunic here is actually kind of an undergarment, not quite the same, but sort of like long johns. So this was the custom in New Testament times to wear this undergarment.

If a person had a spare and it was cold, he might wear two of them, right? He says, don't even do that. Just one, right? Just one. So it was Jesus saying, don't take a spare undergarment even. This is completely bare bones. No bag, no bread, no undergarment, no staff. That's it. Real simple.

And in verses 4 and 5, he says, whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that city. So you're going to stay at one place where they're going to receive you and provide for you completely while you're in that city or town. As for those who do not receive you, so here's the second part. stay there until you leave that city but for those who do not receive you as you go out from that city shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them so the character of the reception was the issue here critical issue having consequences for time and actually for eternity the people of these cities would be judged at the final judgment for how they received these disciples. Because it was indicating, are they embracing the gospel of the kingdom? If the disciples found a welcoming home, they were to stay there the entire time in that city. Stay at the same place. If not, they were to move on to the next one. You either find a place where somebody will keep you there, or you just keep moving. Don't worry about it.

As they left the city that did not welcome them, they were to shake the dust off their sandals." This was a Jewish custom, and it basically meant, you know, if you don't receive me with the message that I have, then you're completely heathen, and I'll have nothing to do with you. So this is Jewish custom.

We see as the reference says in Acts 13.5, Paul and Barnabas do exactly that. Take the dust off their feet. They do exactly that to the Jews of Sidi and Antioch.

So here's Luke 9.6, departing they began going throughout villages preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

So the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel of the kingdom, not the gospel of Christ died for your sins and was buried and rose again. So there are at least some places, Dr. Luke calls them here villages, because that's the thing, you have cities and then villages, that receive the disciples by offering a place to stay. That's the initial sign of welcome, right? To the extent that they receive and welcomed, were welcomed by at least one household. there, they were able to preach the gospel of the kingdom and to heal and to cast out demons and even raise the dead. The larger question, once they went somewhere, did the rest of the people listen and respond favorably beside the family that decided to have you stay with them? So here's Luke 9, 7 and 8.

Now Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was happening, and he was greatly perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen again."

So, with all the Herods that are in the Bible, we've got to sort out which one it is, this is Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee, and also of Perea, Galilee from the city of Tiberias been there which he had built and then named after Emperor Tiberius that's where it got its name it by the way it wasn't a city there previously and it was very much a Roman city at this point in time they're very heathen and pagan so Herod Antipas was the one responsible for the beheading of John the Baptist at the request of his stepdaughter Salome So it was that Herod that we're talking about here. Due to the things that were happening in Galilee, the rumors stirred Herod Antipas' thoughts and wondering about Jesus and John. He said, wait a minute, I thought I beheaded this John the Baptist guy.

Who are all these other people and what's this guy Jesus? You can imagine Jesus up to this point has been one guy taking his disciples around. and doing things, and that certainly must have gotten Herod's attention. But then, Jesus sends out the other disciples in pairs, and they're going around to different places in Galilee in his domain.

And so he's kind of going nuts because he'll hear a rumor of, oh, this happened here in this city, and he'll send somebody there, and by the time he's there, the guys have moved on. And so you can imagine, he's just kind of wondering, what's happening? I'm trying to rule this kingdom and I've got people, you know, shifting around, moving around. I get rumors of things and by the time I go get somebody to look into it, they've moved on. So that was really bothering him. Now, in terms of finding out who this guy is, you have it on page 3 of your handout.

Here is Herod Antipas. He is one of the sons of Herod the Not-So-Great. And he ruled from 4 B.C. at the death of his father to 39 A.D. and died sometime after that. He's mentioned in Luke several times, including this passage, but we're not done with chapter 13. We'll hear about him again. Supplements available showing the Herod family tree, that is those who are listed in the New Testament. So that's available in the cabinet to the right as you exit the room here.

So here's Luke 9.9, Herod said, I myself had John beheaded, but who is this man about whom I hear such things? And he kept trying to see him. And you can imagine Herod going crazy just trying to chase down the latest rumor about where somebody is and what happened. And so he kept trying, but he didn't get to do it. Later on, we're going to see that Jesus calls Herod a fox. That fox.

Now, interesting, one of the questions we could ask is how could Herod's thoughts and palace musings and wondering, how could that come to Luke? One of the things we found back in chapter 8 is Joanna was one of those who followed Jesus and she was the wife of Husa, Herod's steward. So that's the way the information could get back to Jesus and the disciples and Dr. Luke about what Herod was thinking and saying. So the rumors were, one, that John the Baptist or Elijah the prophet or perhaps another prophet from old times had been resurrected. That was the way the rumors were going.

Herod Antipas was both curious and driven crazy by who Jesus might be. He apparently didn't know about Jesus' disciples. That must have really driven him nuts to have the disciples doing various things and moving around and never catch up with the guy. Both Jesus and his disciples kept moving so that by the time word got back to Herod Antipas it was too late to find out where they'd moved on.

Now, when the apostles returned, they gave an account to him of all that they had done, taking them with him. He withdrew by himself to a city called Bethsaida. The disciples here start telling the Lord, we did this and this and this, and we went here and went there, including the places that had rejected him. We're going to see that later on in the Gospel of Luke. the places where they've been welcome, and what had happened in each place.

So Matthew 10.8, Jesus had told the disciples, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. Those are the kinds of miraculous things that he gave them authority to do. So these are likely the kinds of things that the disciples then would turn around and report back to Jesus. We did this, and we did this there, and we did this there, and the people here rejected us, so we went here, and we did this, and this, and this. And those kinds of things would be included in what they reported.

Now, they went to Bethsaida. Bethsaida had been the home of Peter, and Andrew, and Philip. All four Gospels mention the city of Bethsaida. And I think I know the reason why they went to Bethsaida. We'll talk about that shortly here. Here is Bethsaida.

That was a place that we visited on our trip to Israel. This is kind of an aerial view of the excavation of the main part of the city. It's an ancient one. It had been around for centuries. Here's a fisherman's house at Bethsaida. By the way, Bethsaida means house of fishing, right? House of fishing. So Dr. Luke will record once again that Jesus said things about the city of Bethsaida, and those actually won't be good words.

We have, however, multiple examples of God sending prophets into places that will in the end not take the message to heart. Why would God send somebody to a place that he knows is going to reject the message that he sent with them? It's because God's gracious. God's gracious. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, John chapter 8, unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. Did they believe? No. He told them the truth anyway, because God's gracious.

Here we have Bethsaida over on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee and I think one of the reasons why Jesus took the disciples there is that got them out of Galilee which was ruled by Herod Antipas. So just crossing the northern portion of the Jordan River there got them over into the territory of Antipas' brother Philip. And he was alienated with him. So that got them out from underneath this Herod fellow, the fox. So here is Herod Philip, who ruled from Bethsaida.

Alright, so here is Luke 9.11, But the crowds were aware of this, and followed him, and welcoming them, he began speaking to them about the kingdom of God, and curing those who had need of healing.

So there were crowds. So Bethsaida was not a place to get away from it all, because the crowds followed. And think about it, if you had, here's the disciples, not only spreading the message of the gospel of the kingdom, but you can have Jesus and the disciples now, are healing, are getting rid of leprosy, are casting out demons, raising the dead. That's something you might want to see more of.

So, going to Bethsaida did take Jesus and the disciples out of the domain of Herod Antipas and into the domain of Herod Philip II. So Jesus continued the message of the gospel of the kingdom, continued to heal, cast out demons, cleanse the lepers, etc. Now, why the miracles? Here you have in Luke 7, this is in response to John the Baptist's question. So, and he, Jesus, answered and said to them, that is John's disciples, go and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind received sight, okay, that was in fulfillment of what the Messiah would do in Isaiah.

The lame walk, fulfillment of Isaiah 35.6. The lepers are cleansed, 2 Kings 5. The deaf here, Isaiah 29. The dead are raised up, examples of things that Elijah and Elisha had done in 1st and 2nd Kings. The poor have the gospel preached to them. A couple different passages there out of Isaiah. And blessed is he who does not take offense at me, also out of the book of Isaiah.

So these miracles were not just things that, you know, he did just because they were fun and exciting, but things that were in fulfillment of what the Messiah would do. So, does witnessing a miracle guarantee that a person will believe? If someone actually witnesses a miracle personally, or has multiple sane people say that they saw one, and their stories are consistent, does that guarantee that the person will believe?

No, it does not. Thomas the Doubter would be case in point. Or, here you have Jesus performing miracles and what are the Pharisees concerned about? They're not impressed. Wow, that guy did a miracle. They said you healed on the Sabbath. That's bad. Okay, that's not on our list of exceptions. And so you just broke the law. What a horrible thing you just did.

No, it does not guarantee that seeing a miracle does not guarantee that you're going to believe. Suppose that dozens of people, maybe even hundreds of people witness a bodily resurrection. and then testify of that resurrection, will the one who listens to them believe them?" Not necessarily. When Lazarus was raised in front of many, what did the Jewish leaders want to do? Instead of saying, wow, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, they said, let's kill him. So that was their answer. We've got some other questions.

Can God do miracles today? Yes, God can do miracles today. There are those today who still go around trying to make their whole ministry about doing miracles. But God can do miracles because he always has the capacity and power to do miracles like he did them.

Let me give you an example. Hattie Makaukau of Hawaii and her two daughters. This is World War I era. My grandmother was a missionary to the cannibals in Fiji. And then on her way back, spent about a year and a half in Hawaii, and there in the back of the church, Hattie Macaucau came in with her two daughters, and she had gloves on her fingers, because in those days, if you got caught with leprosy, they put you out on the leper's island, and left you to fend for yourself, and it was a really rough life. And she would be separated from her daughters. Her fingers were eaten back with leprosy, and so they were all shortened and unhealthy. But she was concerned that she would get caught because her husband had already been sent out to the lepers island, and that her daughters then would have nobody to care for them, and that she too would be separated from her daughters.

So she came into the church where my grandmother was. She became a believer that day. And that same day she said, can you pray for my leprosy? And they said yes. And they prayed for her leprosy and it was healed and her fingers grew back. So there's a shot, not real good, but shows her fingers grown back after being eaten away with leprosy. So healed and fingers grow back. That doesn't happen.

Nancy has actually had a healing and we were praying together and she was healed before we said Amen. So yes, God can heal. But secondly, though, there are those who appear to carry on a ministry of miracles. Unfortunately, a lot of it is fraudulent. And that's unfortunately the case. God can, in fact, do miracles, but fake miracles don't do any good.

So we're free to ask God for a miracle. God may choose to do so. That's his choice, right? We should not expect that God will do a miracle. There are those who have been told, well, you just don't have enough faith or some other such thing, and that's just simply not correct.

God may or may not choose to do a miracle in any particular case. He may choose to do a miracle, but He may choose not, if that's in His purpose. So what if God doesn't do the miracle I asked for? If God does not do the miracle I asked for, then it's apparent that God is doing something else with the difficulty in our life or others' lives.

If He doesn't answer favorably, it doesn't necessarily mean, well, we don't have enough faith or we're doing something wrong. 2 Corinthians 12, 7-10, the Apostle Paul himself asked God to remove a thorn in the flesh, and we're not told exactly what that is, but God wanted to teach him about the sufficiency of his grace, so God said no. To the Apostle Paul, who did miracles for other people, right?

Trials are for either, only one of two purposes for trials, okay? Either for spiritual discipline to put us back on the path of fellowship with Him, or for our spiritual growth. But there's no such thing as a useless trial. Every trial has a purpose. Every trial has a purpose.

I've told you about an experience a long time ago on a ranch far, far away, over in Northern California. Right about here, I used to find little anthills on the side of the old dirt road. And I'd go and I'd take a shovel and I'd scoop up a bunch of ants from one anthill and take them and put them over on the other anthill and watch them. Wow, there's all kinds of excitement when you do that. And so I'd watch them and I'd play this little anthill game from time to time.

But God's not doing that with us. He's not just saying, Boy, I wonder what will happen if I do this to Vern. God's not playing games with us. He has a purpose in every single thing that happens. We need to remember also, too, that these disciples went out and they preached the gospel of the kingdom. You know, they didn't understand the other gospel. He had him proclaim the gospel of the kingdom only to the Jews in the land of Israel. It was their chance to avoid the otherwise coming judgment that did come in 70 A.D. The gospel the disciples didn't yet understand at all was that Christ would die for the sins of the whole world of all time as our substitute, the gospel of substitution, and be buried and rise again on the third day. They didn't know or understand that enough to spread that gospel at this point.

But the instant that a person believes that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. He's saved forever. God takes it from there. Everything that is true of you from the time that you were initially saved, that you were placed into Christ, that Christ was placed into you, that you were placed into the Spirit, that the Spirit was placed into you, all the things that are true of you from the time that you first believe We spend the rest of our lives catching up to what's already true. Isn't that something? We don't understand all the things that God did, but we spend the rest of our lives learning about and growing in what God has already accomplished. Isn't that amazing?

This gospel is the one that we present. The gospel of the kingdom was one presented to the Jews back then. but it is not being presented now. It will be again in the coming tribulation period. The gospel of the kingdom will be preached again throughout the whole world. But you and I will be out of here.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you have done these wonderful and marvelous and amazing things to show who you are, to show your character, and so that people might respond to the truth. And we just thank you for what you have done because we put our trust and faith and confidence in you. And you're continuing to do those things. We thank you for your faithfulness in all things. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.