Who Do You Say I AM? (Review discussion)

[0:00] Good morning again. Take out your Bibles with me and turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 7.

[0:17] Today we do a review of the last two and a half chapters. We have a lot to cover. And we're going to spend hours doing it.

[0:31] No. We have studied each of these passages, so we're not going to re-study them. What we want to do today is take a step back and look at the forest.

[0:44] Look at the big picture. Look at what Luke is doing. How is Luke presenting to us so that we might have certainty? How is he proving to us that Jesus is the one?

[1:03] And that the Gospel is about salvation and eternal blessedness? Can't help but think the song we just sang.

[1:18] I love that song. By the way, who are we addressing that song to when we sing? Our soul. Yeah, we're singing to ourselves.

[1:30] Isn't that interesting? But the Psalms do that all the time. Right? David does that a lot. Hey, what's going on, soul? Knock it off. Right? Well, probably didn't use those words.

[1:44] And I think about what we looked at last week. Jesus told us to lose our soul. Right? In order to save our soul, we have to lose our soul. And I think that song models how we do that.

[1:59] Reminding our soul that the thorny way is the way he leads us and guides us. Right? So, anyway.

[2:11] So, what I want to do is just read something from the beginning, chapter 7, and then the end passage. We're looking at chapter 7, all of chapter 7, all of chapter 8, and chapter 9 up to about halfway to about 26.

[2:30] So, right now I just want to read a couple of passages and then I will give a brief, hopefully, overview of the big picture. And then just open it up to you.

[2:41] This is your time to talk and discuss and ask questions and say what you're learning, those kind of things. Okay? So, I first want to read from Luke 7, beginning at verse 11 through 30.

[2:57] And then we will read chapter 9, verses 18 to 26. So, if you're able to stand as I read.

[3:08] Again, Luke chapter 7, beginning at verse 11. Amen. Soon afterward, he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him.

[3:23] As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.

[3:39] And a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when Jesus saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep.

[3:51] Then he came up and touched the buyer. And the bearer stood still, and he said, young man, I say to you, arise.

[4:03] And the dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all.

[4:16] And they glorified God, saying, a great prophet has arisen among us. And God has visited his people. And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

[4:32] The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, Are you the one who is to come?

[4:48] Or shall we look for another? And when the men had come to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, Are you the one who is to come?

[5:01] Or shall we look for another? And in that hour, he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits.

[5:12] And on many who were blind, he bestowed sight. And he answered them, Go and tell John what you have seen and heard.

[5:24] The blind receive their sight. The lame walk. Lepers are cleansed. And the deaf hear. The dead are raised. And the poor have the gospel preached to them.

[5:41] Blessed is the one who is not offended by me. And when John's messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to all the crowds concerning John.

[5:52] What did you go up into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing live in luxury.

[6:06] And live in luxury are in king's courts. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? A prophet? Yes, I tell you. And more than a prophet.

[6:17] This is he of whom is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. I tell you, among those born of women, none is greater than John.

[6:34] Yet, the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. When all the people heard this, and the tax gatherers too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John.

[6:56] But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.

[7:08] Chapter 9, verse 18. Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him.

[7:21] And he asked them, Who do the crowds say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has arisen.

[7:36] Then he said to them, But who do you say that I am? And Peter answered, The Christ of God. And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

[8:07] And he said to all, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

[8:19] For whoever would save his soul will lose it, but whoever loses his soul for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

[8:35] For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory, in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

[8:49] So it reads. Let us pray. Father, guide us, Lord, in these moments as we discuss this material, as we discuss what Luke has presented to us, as we think about who Jesus is, how Luke presents Jesus to us.

[9:12] Help us to be able to put some pieces together here today, to connect some dots, and see, Lord, how it works in our own lives.

[9:24] So work in our minds, but also work in our hearts that we would be receptive to your message today. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated.

[9:39] Okay, so, we have looked at Luke, the beginning of Luke, the first three chapters of Luke, Luke introduces to us John, where John the Baptist came from, and then he introduces Jesus.

[9:53] And he kind of, it brings them together, you know, their announcements, and then their births, and then their ministries. Right? So we see the introduction in the first few chapters. In Luke 4 and 5, we saw that's where Jesus began His ministry.

[10:09] Right after He's baptized by John, He begins to go out, He goes into the wilderness, He's tested, and then He comes into Nazareth and preaches, right? And He opens up Isaiah and says, this has now been fulfilled.

[10:22] I am that one with the Spirit upon me anointed. Right? And Nazareth rejects Him. Then He goes out and does some ministries. He begins to gather disciples.

[10:33] So we start to hear about followers. We hear about Peter. We hear about James and John. Right? We hear about these followers coming. And He's beginning to gather them and talk to them about following Him.

[10:48] And then in chapter 6, we saw that Jesus, after He'd called, He then, remember chapter 6, started with He prayed all night and then He chose 12 of all of His disciples.

[11:02] He had many disciples, but He chose 12 whom He would call apostles, the ones He would send out. And then He preached that sermon in Luke 6.

[11:13] That's what we looked at last time. That was our last review. The sermon on the plain. Matthew, it's sermon on the mount. And Luke, it's sermon on the plain. It's a different sermon, though there's a lot of commonality to them.

[11:28] I think it's a sermon Jesus preached pretty much everywhere He went. That's just my opinion. So He's challenging their beliefs when He preaches about loving your enemy.

[11:39] Remember that sermon? Right? All these really wonderful things. Blessed is the one who's insulted and scorned and suffers for my sake. Blessed are you.

[11:51] And love your enemy. Right? Love those enemies. Right? So He's confronting all those expectations. Now, our beliefs. Now we come in chapter 7 through 9 to a part of what Luke reveals as Jesus' ministry, both His works and His words.

[12:11] He is confronting expectations because we have this lingering question that has been building in the Gospel of Luke.

[12:23] Who is this? It began back in chapter 4 when Jesus just started His ministry. And He's casting out demons. And the crowds are asking, Who is this?

[12:36] Who can cast out demons? We've never seen this. Who is this? Right? And then we see it again in chapter 5 when He forgives the paralytic. Remember, the paralytic is laid lowered through the roof.

[12:49] Right? Jesus sees the faith of the friends. And instead of healing the paralytic, He says to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven. Right? Right in the middle of all this big crowd.

[13:01] And the Pharisees are there and they're saying, Who can forgive sins but God? Right? Who is this? Who's trying to forgive sins? Only God can do that. And then Jesus says, Well, to prove to you that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth, He raises up the paralytic.

[13:21] Right? So you have that who question. Then we've had questions. We have a question in chapter 7. We just read about John the Baptist sending His disciples. Are you the one?

[13:33] Who are you? Are you the one? John? This is John the Baptist. He shouldn't be doubting. But remember, He said this one coming after Him would come with, would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.

[13:49] He's wondering, where's the fire? Where's the winnowing fork? So we have Jesus answering John. And then, you just have more questions.

[14:01] And later, with the sinful woman, again, people questioning who is He who forgives sins. Chapter 8, when the disciples have the storm, right, and they're afraid, they're dying, the boat's filling with water, Jesus is asleep in the storm.

[14:18] I don't know how He does that. But they go and wake Him up and He raises up and He rebukes the wind, it says. In the other Gospels, He said, Hush!

[14:31] Kind of like what demons says, Out! One word. Out or hush. Hush, be still, and the sea calms. And then, remember, the disciples say, Who is this?

[14:45] Who commands the wind and the waves and they obey Him? So again, questions. Who is He? Who is He? Who is He? Who is He? Who is He?

[14:56] And now we come in chapter 9, we have Herod asking the question, right? The opinions are going out there. It's John the Baptist has raised from the dead and is haunting Herod.

[15:08] Or it's Elijah or it's one of the prophets. Nobody says Messiah. Everybody has other opinions. He must be a great prophet. He must be whatever. So then we come to the final question where Jesus asks them, Now, who do you say?

[15:25] You've been with me for over two years. Who do you say? Isn't it interesting that for two years, over two years, they've been following Him and the question hasn't come up.

[15:39] Or Jesus hasn't told them yet. He's let them learn too. And that's what Luke is doing. He's taking us through the process. He's letting us discover what people discovered about Jesus.

[15:53] It was slow. Who is this? Who is this? Who forgives sins? Who can command demons? Who can command the wind and the waves? Who is this, right? And John is, Are you the one?

[16:06] Because you're not what I expected. Is Jesus the one? That's the big important question we must ask. That's what Luke is raising that question for us.

[16:19] Who is He? Is He what we expected? And the world has opinions about Jesus. Do they not? Somewhere, whether they care or not, they have to say, Well, yeah, He's a good teacher.

[16:34] Yeah, He's a prophet. A lot of religions have opinions about Jesus. Yeah, He's great. He's wonderful. But He's not, you know, God. Only Christianity says, No, Jesus is the Son of God.

[16:48] The eternal Son of God who emptied Himself and became a man. Right? Only Christianity says that. Because Jesus doesn't give us any other choice.

[17:02] He's not, He can't be just a prophet because He claimed to be more. He claimed to be the Son of Man. The one from Daniel 7.

[17:16] The one who ascends up to the Ancient of Days and is given an eternal kingdom. He's not a prophet. He is the Son of Man. Or, as the Gospel of John says, the Son of God.

[17:32] He is the Messiah. Okay, so that's the big question. So, I want you to see what Luke is doing. You have notes there. I've got, I've got more information on that outline than you'll ever need or want or, you know, if you don't care about that, draw on.

[17:47] I don't care what you do with that. if it's helpful to you. But notice, I've kind of grouped a number of themes on the right side of the front page. Right? The who questions.

[17:59] There are, in these two and a half chapters, there are seven miracle stories. Interesting that Luke groups them together. Okay, he groups the first two in chapter 7.

[18:09] And then he groups four in a row in chapter 8. And then, in chapter 9, we have the feeding of the 5,000. We have those miracle stories. And remember, miracles are signs.

[18:22] They are true, miraculous works that Jesus does. He heals. He gives sight to the blind, etc. But, the Gospel of John teaches us that miracles are more than just a temporary, miraculous work.

[18:39] They are signs. John calls them signs. They signify something. They're showing something more. So, the fact that Jesus can open blind eyes means He can take people who cannot see God's truth and open their eyes to see the truth.

[18:59] He can change hearts. He can make the lame walk. He can make the dead. I'm dead before Christ opens, you know, right? So, they're pictures of our salvation experience.

[19:11] So, then you'll also see, kind of looking at the right side, you've got the seven miracle stories, which relate to the theme you see in these two chapters of power and authority.

[19:25] Jesus has power over demons. The centurion says to Jesus, you don't need to come to my house, right? Just what? Just say the word.

[19:36] I'm a man with authority and I tell people what to do and they do it. I know you have authority, so all you've got to do is say the word and my servant will be healed. You don't need to come to my house, right?

[19:47] And remember, Jesus is like, whoa, I've not seen this kind of faith in Israel. But it's about authority. I know you have authority. You can just say the word and it will happen, right?

[20:00] And the authority comes up in the storm. Who is this that commands the storm, the wind and the waves? That's authority. Who has that kind of authority? And then when he faces the demoniac, remember?

[20:10] He goes all the way across the lake and he meets this man who's got a legion of demons, at least 2,000 demons because in another gospel it talks about 2,000 pigs that were going to rush down, right?

[20:22] So at least a legion means 2,000. It could mean as many as 6,000 demons. I can't imagine that. One demon would be enough, right? This man is just shattered.

[20:34] He has no control of his life. Right? He's just being terrorized. And Jesus with a word says, get out.

[20:48] And they begin to balk a little bit, right? The demons argue with him. Well, not argue. They beg. Now it's one against at least 2,000.

[21:01] And it's not even a match. Not even a bad one. They're terrified of Jesus. Don't throw us in the pit. Don't throw, we're begging you, please.

[21:13] Don't throw us in the abyss. Please don't torment us. They're tormentors and they don't want to be tormented. They know it's coming.

[21:26] They see Jesus and they're absolutely terrified. Can you imagine it? What kind of authority and power that is? Please let us call the pigs.

[21:38] Oh, if we could just call the pigs, we'd be so happy. Because then we could destroy them. Right? And then you have, you know, they go on the pigs, the pigs go down the hill and they drown the pigs that don't drown.

[21:49] They float, right? But they somehow choke them to death. And you have a bad case of deviled ham. Alright, so, so you have these, you have this power to work.

[22:02] Then we have faith, faith keeps coming up. We have the faith of the centurion. We have the faith of the sinful woman. We have the faith that the disciples don't have during the storm.

[22:13] because Jesus says, where's your faith? And then we have the faith of the woman who comes and sneaks up, remember, and just touches the fringe of his robe and she'll be healed.

[22:24] Jesus says, your faith saved you. He says to the sinful woman, right, who comes and washes his feet in the Pharisee's house, your faith saved you. And then we have the faith of Jairus who comes, right, the synagogue ruler who humbles himself, comes and asks Jesus to come and then Jesus is delayed and in the meantime his daughter goes from dying to dead.

[22:47] And Jesus tells the synagogue leader, right, don't fear. Only believe. But it's too late. Only believe.

[22:59] When it's hopeless, only believe. That's going to take some faith. So, and then we have the theme of hearing quite a bit.

[23:12] particularly in the parable of the sower. Remember, the word here comes up about eight times. Have ears to hear and be careful how you hear.

[23:26] So, we have all those things. Okay, so I've probably said too much already. So, you have all that info on there. You can look at it. You can use it or you can ask questions about it. I just want to open it up.

[23:37] I don't want to get into all the details, but I do want you to see what Luke is doing. He's presenting to us gradually who Jesus is. And we finally get to the point midway through chapter nine.

[23:52] He's the Messiah. And then he clarifies what Messiah he is. He's one that suffers and is rejected and is killed and will rise on the third day. He will repeat this theme to them another seven times according to Luke.

[24:08] And they're not going to get it until he dies and raises from the dead and they stand in the upper room and then he opens their minds to understand. Okay? So, that's an interesting concept as well.

[24:23] That Jesus doesn't explain everything or answer every question over these years they're following and learning. how does that apply to us?

[24:36] Does he give us all the answers and help us understand everything? Right? It's a process. Okay. Lots of things. We can see big picture. What do you want to discuss?

[24:48] Yeah? Just, we talked about Sunday school. I found it was... Sunday school? Yeah, Sunday school. Bible study. Our inductive class? Inductive class. Oh, okay. Sunday school, I get these images of going and coloring and...

[25:02] I'm sorry. Well, growing up in the church in America, I just don't think we... probably, at least I, just don't understand the depth of them not understanding Christ, the Messiah's role.

[25:18] I think, John, like you said, you know, I just don't appreciate the depth of how shocking the Messiah's role was. Yeah. Yeah.

[25:30] Yeah. it's not a big, it's not a big stumbling block for me because I've heard it my entire life. Yeah, we come from a different context. So, I'm trying to show what, you know, get it from Luke's perspective.

[25:44] And somebody reading this gospel that Luke wrote the first time, right, they're kind of, and they don't know anything. They've just heard some stuff. So, so he's slowly unpacking it.

[25:58] Just like Jesus did. Jesus was slowly unpacking things to the disciples. Because after this point, there's a major transition in the book of Luke.

[26:09] He's been gathering disciples, now he's sent them out for the first time. And by the time we get to verse 51 of chapter 9, he's going to set his face toward Jerusalem.

[26:21] And for the next year and a half, half. He's going to wander around, go on his way down there, he's going to come back and forth. But he's on his way to Jerusalem. And the teaching changes.

[26:36] The teaching gets harder. He's kind of pruning more disciples. Because who wants this deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him?

[26:51] Sign me up. I want to carry a cross. And that whole concept is brand new to them. He says, pick up your cross, and they're going, that's a Roman thing.

[27:01] What do, what do Jews following the Messiah have to do with the cross? So, they've got to process that one, too. What else have you got?

[27:15] Sorry. I'm talking too much. Rip. Yeah, I think that the general theme here is the conflict between our earthly worldview and our eternal view.

[27:28] John, and just one of the verses that you read here, I think, just really hammers this on Luke 7, 28. I tell you, among those born women, none is greater than John, yet the one who's least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

[27:46] You know, you look at that, and you think, man, I'm not John. I mean, John was bold. John, John did all these wonderful things on earth. John's works are impeccable.

[27:58] Yeah. Can't compare to him. What matters is God's work in you. Right. You know, we, we, we're so focused on this worldview that we have here, you know, and our tendency, I think, is to look at the cross and think, yeah, Jesus died on the cross.

[28:18] And that's, that's the shadow that we have living in this worldview. What really mattered was what went on behind the scenes that we couldn't see. God himself paid the price of eternal separation from him for us, for every one of us that he's called himself.

[28:41] And I just see this tremendous contrast there between our earthly focus and not to be critical because I criticize myself, when we talk about our time of prayer, 90% of that or better than 90% of that is focused on some earthly, worldly issue.

[29:01] I have a financial issue. I have a physical issue. I have a relationship issue. And those are important. But I think verse 28 is telling us that's really not the issue.

[29:18] Because if Christ has died for me, if Christ has paid the price for me, not of anything that I've done, but everything that he's done, I'm better than John.

[29:32] That's kind of a tough thing to wrap your head around. Yeah, like you said, not better in faithfulness, not better in commitment, not better in character.

[29:44] I mean, who can, Jesus said, born of women, that's, he's great. Nobody compares to John. So the comparison isn't a personal one.

[29:54] The comparison is who's John and who are we? We're in the kingdom. When the kingdom comes, when Jesus brings the kingdom and we enter into the kingdom, we go to a whole other level.

[30:07] As great as John was, he's that transition. Old Testament, John the Baptist, Jesus and the kingdom. It's not that he's not, he's the greatest physically, but we're talking about spiritual kingdom.

[30:24] Even the least person in the spiritual, in this, this kingdom is so great, this kingdom so surpassing that we enter into compared to what David did, compared to what Solomon did, compared to what Moses did.

[30:39] They don't even compare. What Jesus brings is so vast. Like you said, it's not just, like Jesus said, my kingdom's not in this world.

[30:50] It's much bigger. Right? So that perspective. That's why I love the phrase, my king is on his throne. I've got to remember that.

[31:02] That's what Be Still My Soul is about. The wave and the winds, still know, that voice. Right? He is the master. He is the king of kings.

[31:13] He is in control. Though my life seems in shambles. And I'm dealing with those relationships. And I'm dealing with those things that I deal with.

[31:23] then, but I look, what am I looking at? Yeah. He cares about my things, but, yeah. So, going back to chapter one, the first paragraph, verse two, three, where Luke sets out the theme of this book as, I want you to have certainty about the things you have learned.

[31:53] And we're not quite told what you've learned, so, but we understand, come to understand what it is, and it's about Jesus Christ, as you put out here, who he is.

[32:12] But I also think it's really wonderful what you put out in your format is application. How do we take all, and I think that's what our walk is about.

[32:23] There's a duality in this, so it's a very different story from, say, pagan stories about gods.

[32:35] Very, very different. And there's a duality that I think to me becomes, that Luke is so good at bringing out, is he does want us, he gives us, we don't know, we don't fully understand, but the journey and the sanctification by the Holy Spirit leads us toward God, and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, so we have to walk that walk, because if you do not ask, you won't receive either.

[33:20] So there's that whole duality of relationship. miracles show us that. Those seven miracles show us two things. They show us, one, who Jesus is, right?

[33:32] We see his incredible authority, power, his compassion, right? We see those things, but we also see Jesus saying to people in those miracles, your faith saved you, to the sinful woman, to the woman who's trying to hide, right?

[33:49] Just touch the bridge. Your faith saved you, to the centurion. I've not seen this kind of faith, right? So what we learn about these people as we see these miracles, and then the sinful woman too, right?

[34:05] She's coming in, she's just crying all over his feet, right? She's crying, the snot's coming down, she's wiping everything up, she's trying to be, you know, she doesn't care, she's just worshiping at Jesus' feet, she's so happy.

[34:20] We learn from these kind of people what it means to have faith in Jesus, what it looks like to approach Him, right? The sinful woman, right?

[34:32] She just wants forgiveness and she knows she can come to Him and care less about anybody, whatever anybody else thinks about her. She knows people are judging her, she doesn't care.

[34:48] She's a big mess, right? She doesn't care. Because it only matters what Jesus thinks, right?

[34:59] And then the other woman, so those pictures show us, so when I'm desperate like that woman, right? She had no other remedies.

[35:10] She's been through all the doctors for 12 years, I have no other remedies. My only hope is Jesus. She shows us what it means to come when you have no hope.

[35:21] Right? And they show us desperateness. Faith is a desperate, there's a desperateness to faith. There's a messiness to faith.

[35:33] Right? I like to think the centurion took a big risk also. Yeah. A huge risk because he jeopardized his authority as a Roman ruler.

[35:55] Could it? Jairus did the same thing? Jairus did the same thing within his culture. Yeah. And so all the risk taking of going and fasting.

[36:09] Can't you relate to the woman that just wanted to come in secret? Yeah. I want to do that. I don't want anybody to know. It's just me and Jesus. I don't even want Jesus to know. I just want to kind of steal a little power and then get away.

[36:22] Isn't that interesting? Jesus doesn't let her get away. it's for your good that I expose you so that you can confess your faith in front of everybody and everybody else can hear what your faith looked like.

[36:40] Not very religious at all. It was just sneak up and touch the edge of his robe. Yeah. What else?

[36:52] What else do you see? What else is challenging? What else is thinking about questions? I think that what was unique for me to see was that the demons knew exactly who he was.

[37:11] He didn't even have to say what they were and they knew exactly who he was. But yet all the people around him questioned! that helped me because when I'm being attacked I know who God is and who Jesus is.

[37:45] That's why you're being attacked because you know who God is. Yeah. Exactly. What's to get you off off thinking that. Yeah.

[38:01] Well Luther puts it right in we sang a mighty fortress right? One little word. right?

[38:11] I mean our enemy is scary and you know there's no match but one little word one little word fell him I mean and it's not my word it's the word you know the Lord rebuke you like Michael said to Satan the Lord you didn't rebuke you didn't say I rebuke you Michael said the Lord rebuke you as powerful as Michael was he had rest in his own right?

[38:49] When Satan gives you a curse give Satan a verse say the word say Jesus word it is powerful say his word the Lord rebuke you no it is written I won't listen to that no it is written fear not only believe or whatever you know have those in your in your holster yeah I think thinking about worldview too the demons have the right worldview because they know what eternity looks like and they know who they're dealing with and they know what their destiny is yeah and destroy as fast as they can as many as they can we need to know what our destiny is what else

[39:53] Sandy I think I think the thing that challenged me a couple weeks ago was seeing miracles differently in that when God healed the body he just didn't heal the body he healed the soul and the mind and I think we lose sight of that as we ask for healing for illness even today we lose sight of the fact that it's more than just healing the body it's what's happening on the inside of us in soul and spirit and in our mind that God is wanting to heal and when he says you are made whole it's the whole I think that you brought that out and I appreciated that shift in perspective one of the other things that challenged me is that when Jesus healed people did he listen to their story we often talk about what Jesus did or what

[41:00] Jesus said but how did Jesus listen and and that has been challenging to me to say he listened beyond spoken words of people but he really listened to their story listened to who they were listened to what their real need was yeah it's like the miracle in John right where the guy at the pool and he couldn't get into the water fast enough right and Jesus says do you want to be well there's a psychological thing going on there do you want to be well yeah because after so many years you're not first come on you got to figure that out just lay next to the pool of you got to be some other strategy right do you really want to or do you like living in as a victim yeah but yeah he does thanks Sandy what else I think what ties into what

[42:02] Sandy just said too is that Jesus listens to understand whereas nowadays in our cultures and everything it seems like everybody listens to respond yeah and they miss the point they can't look through the fault to see the need the way Jesus does yeah good more yeah I think that on the heels of that the message about hearing Jesus can you hear me now really spoke to me when you said that Christianity you're either progressing or regressing and how eight times considering hearing that we're supposed to take care of how you hear because a lot of times what you hear with your ears is directly into your heart first before your mind even yeah

[43:05] I don't know where I got this from I've just always known this from a very very young age that hearing is more important than speaking and that's by divine design because we have two ears and one mouth right quick to hear slow to speak yeah good yeah and that was the parable of the sower is application can you hear me are you listening and then the picture of the parable of the sower right you have the different soils right and they are pictures of obstacles to hearing right if it's if it's beside the road you know you don't hear at all because the enemy takes it away but then they have the rocky soil which the rocky doesn't mean it's just got a lot of rocks it means it's bedrock it means you can only go to this depth and you can't go that's it it's not that you don't clear the rocks out it's bedrock under there that's the word that Jesus uses so you just don't have any depth it's all superficial so is your listening superficial right you get you kind of take what you like and you like and then you go but then then once the real stuff the thorns come

[44:35] I'm out right that's the rocky soil and then you have the weedy soil right that's where you do well but the weeds grow up with it right and it chokes it out and Jesus defines that as what what are the things that choke out our ability to hear worldly stuff yeah cares of the world which is normal that's our default we care about those things of course we do I need to get food I need to get clothing I need to you know but if I obsess with those things or if they become my focus then I can't hear if I'm too distracted I can't serve two masters right then you have the good soil what's the good soil how do you get a good heart yeah it's got to be given because I start out rocky and thorny and all that stuff right

[45:45] I need a new heart so it's not about getting it producing it's about please say the word abiding right yeah I don't bear fruit unless I abide yeah good okay any other we covered it yeah we know everything but see that's one of the big pictures that I saw is that there's this progress and learning and Jesus even sent his disciples out before they understood it all he has them preaching and healing before they even understand they understand some how do they even know what to preach well they heard Jesus do it about a hundred times so they just going to say what the master said that's a step of faith and

[46:50] Jesus isn't that interesting they're not ready but he sends! They're ready enough and they were effective because he gave them authority and power if he gives you a thought yeah problem is today we have a lot of demons preaching in church yeah there's thousands of yeah people hear the easy they don't heal the hard that's what yeah well you you can grow a big crowd by saying things people want to hear that's just like Jesus said that would happen and Jesus is the one as the gospel goes on he's going to cut disciples out it's going to go from big to small once they really understand what he's saying he's like hmm right okay thank you for our time thank you thank you for our time thank you for these words thank you for the the wisdom you put into

[47:56] Luke to gather this information to to talk to the eyewitnesses to talk to get to to look at other documents that were written and then to write out in consecutive order these truths about Jesus what he did what he said and to write him out in such a way that we might have certainty that these things are true and so help us to hear Luke rightly and by that hear you rightly this we ask in Christ's name amen amen