2020.10.09 Hopewell @Home ▫ Luke 9:1–11

Read Luke 9:1–11

Questions from the Scripture text: Whom does Jesus call together in Luke 9:1? What does He give them? What two things does He send them to do in Luke 9:2? What does He tell them to take (Luke 9:3)? What four things does He specifically warn against? Where are they supposed to stay while in a city (Luke 9:4)? What might not happen (Luke 9:5)? What are they to do in that case? How does Luke 9:6 summarize the disciples’ mission? Whom does Luke 9:7 say has heard about Jesus, while the disciples are out on their mission? What three explanations were people making (Luke 9:7-8)? What was Herod trying to do (Luke 9:9)? Who return in Luke 9:10? What do they tell Him? Who find out that the apostles have returned (Luke 9:11)? Where do they go? What does Jesus do? 

The Lord Jesus so closely attends His appointed messengers that their words are attended with His power. He was sending them “to preach the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:2a), but so that the power of their preaching might be tangibly visible, He also “gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases” (Luke 9:1). So, in addition to preaching the kingdom, they were also able “to heal the sick” (verse 2b).

These days, rather than these immediate displays of Christ’s power (cf. Hebrews 2:3–4), the Lord attends the proclamation of His Word with a more enduring display of His power in transformed lives (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:5–10; Philippians 2:12–13).

Preachers ought not worry about themselves, for the Lord takes care of them (Luke 9:3), but hearers should note that even with this miraculous, apostolic preaching mission, the materially expressed thankfulness of the hearers was the Lord’s method of caring for His preachers (Luke 9:4-5), and He receives testimony against those who do not so respond.

And truly, our Lord is worthy of a response. The Lord Jesus is compassionate to receive all who come to Him (Luke 9:11b), and to speak His powerful Word to them (verse 11c, cf. Hebrews 2:12, Hebrews 3:12–4:2, Hebrews 12:25–29), and to heal all who are in need of healing (Luke 9:11d, cf. Philippians 1:6, Psalm 103:3). 

So, we are to respond to faithful preaching by taking care of the material needs of the preacher, but let us remember that it is both our reception of the preacher (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:9a) and our Christ-transformed lives (cf. verse 9b) that especially testify to the power of His Word (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:5). Let us aim to live such lives that the world puzzles over the source of this new life as Herod did in Luke 9:7–9… such lives that even one like Herod would “seek to see Him.”

How does the power of Jesus’s Word show in how you have been responding to preaching?

Suggested songs: ARP19B “The Lord’s Most Perfect Law” or TPH172 “Speak, O Lord”