Luke 8:26-29 - Demon possessed

8:26,27

Some manuscripts  have Gadarenes, and others Geresenes, The best attested is Gerasenes. It was an area inhabited by Gentiles. Here Jesus met a demon-possessed man. In Matthew there is reference to two demon-possessed men, Mark, like Luke, has just one. The most likely explanation is that Luke and Mark are just focused on the healing of the single man who was most severely affected, while Matthew learnt that there was another one there as well.

Whatever the case, we have a very sorry man here. The demons had such an effect on him that he tormented himself and others. He lived among the tombs and wore no clothes. No one would want anything to do with him. Now in cases like this there are some who would criticise the townspeople for such an attitude, just as most of us can be criticised today for not treating homeless people properly. But we need to look at this a little more closely. Why didn’t the people want anything to do with the demoniac? Probably largely because they didn’t know what to do with him. Likewise, the reason that we often do not care for the homeless, or addicts, or mentally ill, or seek to try and forget about them isn’t that we don’t care enough (though we probably don’t), but that we don’t know how to care and are afraid. So the “lack of care” is actually a defence mechanism. The difference between Jesus and everyone else here isn’t just that He cared, but He knew how to care.

8:28,29

We also see again the importance and the reality of demon possession. In New Testament times there were travelling “exorcists” who used various devices to cast demons out (today you could maybe say the same about parts of the charismatic church!). Jesus was different. He gave a simple command, and the demons had to obey. We need to confront the reality of demons, and we need to learn the Jesus way, not the showman way.

In this incident the man begs Jesus not to torture him. It is possible that it is the demon speaking through him, or maybe he is so used to the demons torturing him that he expects Jesus to do the same. Verse 29 gives us examples of some of the things the demons had done to him.

Luke 8:22-25 - Calming the storm

8:22,23

Jesus’ original command to go over to the other side of the lake was innocuous enough, but was going to lead to apparent great danger and one of the greatest displays of Jesus’ power. As they sailed across Jesus fell asleep, then a great storm grew up. Now we must remember that several of the disciples were fishermen, so were used to bad weather and normal storms. So the fact that this storm caused them such great consternation must mean it was an exceptionally bad storm. Lake Galilee is situated some 700 feet below sea level and was surrounded by mountains, so it was subject to storms.

8:24,25

The disciples in desperation went to Jesus. Mark has a slightly longer account (Mark 4:36-41), recording that the disciples asked Jesus if He didn’t care about them, and that Jesus commanded the storm “Be still”. Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves and all became calm. Then Jesus rebukes the disciples for their lack of faith. There are several things to ponder.

First the disciples went to Jesus. It was largely in desperation, but they went to Him nevertheless, having some belief that He could do something about the situation.

Secondly, Jesus was sleeping. Did He know a storm was going to blow up? Was the storm actually going to drown them, or did it just look that bad?

Thirdly, the storm obeyed Jesus. The disciples were absolutely amazed at this. In the Old Testament one of the attributes of God is His authority over all things, including all of nature.

Fourthly, how was the disciples faith meant to operate? Were they just meant to trust that they would get through the storm, or were they meant to command the waves themselves, or at least to pray to the Father themselves? We do see this incident as demonstration of the divinity of Jesus, but Jesus’ words “where is your faith” would tend to indicate that the disciples could have done something. Perhaps the key question is “could Jesus calm the storm because He was God (which He is), or because He was a man who lived in complete trust, obedience and love towards the Father?”

Luke 16-21 - Who is my family?

8:16-18

The word of God is meant to be on display, it is meant to be heard. And when the word comes into our life and sets us alight we are meant to be seen. Our society is increasingly anti-Christian and does not want to hear the truth. That is the will of the world. But the will of God is that His light is seen by the world. The world may try to smother the light, but it is God’s light so they will not succeed. We need to know which side we are on and which side we are working for.

So we are to consider carefully how we listen. We need to listen with the ears of Christ, and with His purposes in view. We may understand only a little, but if we take small steps in the direction of that godly understanding more understanding will be given. We sometimes want God to give us the full revelation before we do anything, but that is not the way He works. He gives us a little and sees if we will act upon it. If we do then more is added, if we do not, then even what we have is taken away.

8:19-21

In Mark and Matthew this incident is placed before the parable of the sower, but we need to bear in mind that the gospel writers were not concerned with giving strict chronological order, but with the lessons that Jesus was teaching, both in word and deed. Family was extremely important in that society, far more greatly valued than it is in our society. So one might have thought that since Jesus’ mothers and brothers were there Jesus would give priority to them, but there is a more important relationship. As far as Jesus is concerned it is those who hear and do the word that are most important. Now we need to understand Jewish idioms, and Jesus is not saying family does not matter. The Bible, Old and New Testament, is stuffed full of instructions to take care of our families,and Jesus Himself showed concern for His mother even as He was dying on the cross. But there may come times when it is a choice between Jesus and family, in those times Jesus must come first.

Evidence for the Resurrection - A primer

Evidence for the Resurrection

A Primer

This is just a very brief primer on the evidence for the resurrection. There are many sources on the internet, eg on Desiring God and books which go into things in much more detail, and it is important for us to know that while ultimately it is by faith that we know that Christ is risen, this belief is actually supported by the evidence. So here is a brief summary of the main points.

Positive Evidence

1. The gospels themselves and the New Testament letters. The New Testament letters were out within a relatively short timeframe of the events of Easter. The evidence for the reliability of the New Testament documents is overwhelming when compared with other events of similar antiquity.
2. The empty tomb. If Jesus had not risen, then the easiest thing for the religious or civic authorities to do would have been to simply point to the tomb where He was buried, but they could not do this because the only tomb they had was an empty one.
3. The church. How would the church have got started and grown without the resurrection?
4. Personal encounters with the risen Christ. If Christ was not risen, how is it millions of people, myself included, claim to know Christ?

Negative Evidence - Countering the arguments against the resurrection

None of the arguments against the resurrection stand up to scrutiny. Here are several examples.

1. The disciples made it up

If this was true then why didn't the authorities just point to the tomb where Jesus was buried?

If they had made it up would they have been prepared to die for a lie?

2. The disciples moved the body

Surely the body would have been found at some point? And again, why would they do it, and why would they be prepared to die for their faith?

3. They had hallucinations

There were multiple appearances to different people in different circumstances. This makes hallucinations a totally implausible explanation. And again there is the question, why didn’t the authorities point to the tomb?

4. Jesus never actually died on the cross.

Muslims believe something like this. Sometimes it is referred to as the “swoon theory” saying that Jesus merely swooned and was revived by the cool of the tomb. This is perhaps the most ridiculous suggestion. Jesus was severely beaten before the cross itself, He could not even carry His own cross.

The Romans were experts at two things, building roads and killing people.

Even if Jesus had not died, which is most implausible, what state would He have been in even if the “cool of the tomb” had revived Him? And how did the stone get moved?

5. The disciples were gullible and would believe anything

The gospel records clearly show that the disciples were not gullible, and had no expectation of Jesus being raised from the dead, even though Jesus told them He would be. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus had been told by the women and Peter that the tomb was empty, yet they still did not believe that Jesus was alive until He appeared to them.

The long and the short of it is that it is perfectly reasonable to believe in the resurrection of Jesus. It is a unique and an amazing event, but it is also one whose veracity is supported by the evidence.

My belief that Jesus rose from the dead has no problems with the evidence, whereas, those who deny the resurrection have enormous problems with the evidence.

We can confidently rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Luke 8:11-15 - On types of soil

8:11,12

The seed is the word of God. The seed is good. People are always trying to change the seed in order to get “better results”, but the seed is good, it us who need changing! We then get an explanation of the various responses. The stony ground represents those where the devil takes the word away from their hearts. Remember that in the Bible “heart” includes mind and emotions, not just emotions. There are various ways in which the devil does this. He can use past hurts to make someone resistant to the gospel, or he can use wrong ideas, such as “science disproves God” to stop someone hearing. Note that because the devil does this it does not mean we are powerless. We may have been hurt by events in the past (or the present) but we do not have to let this harden our hearts. With intellectual barriers we can look carefully at issues and see that Christianity actually makes far more sense than any other worldview.

8:13-15

Some initially receive the word with joy, but it takes no root. There is no depth to their belief. Note that in John’s gospel there are references to people who “believed” but it was clear that they did not have “saving faith”. So there can be an initially positive response, but because there is no depth when difficulties are encountered they quickly fall away. We should seek in our own lives to have an ever deeper appreciation of the gospel, and we should seek to give others a deeper appreciation of what God has done as well.

Others here the word but the  the worries and distractions of life stop the word bearing fruit. We need to “seek first the kingdom of God”. The gospel is not an add-on to our lives, Jesus is our life. Again, we need to ensure that this becomes true in our own lives, and to seek to help others to do the same.

Just as ensuring a good natural harvest requires consistent careful work, so it is with a spiritual harvest. “A noble and good heart”. Our evangelical theology often finds it difficult to think that condition of our heart makes any difference to the effect of the word of God in our lives, ie our response to the gospel (this especially upsets Calvinists). However, we should note that the Bible seems to have no such problem, so neither should we. It is better to be of good character than bad! So yet again we should do what we can to ensure that we have “a noble and good heart”. Paul urges us to think on whatever is “right, pure, lovely or admirable” (Phil 4:8). So we should encourage ourselves and others to feed our hearts and minds aright.

Luke 8:4-10 - Sowing seeds

8:4-8

This is another of the very well known parables. As usual, a great crowd gathered with people coming from all around. First we get the parable, then Jesus explains the parable to His disciples. A parable is a story that uses an everyday parallel to teach a moral or spiritual lesson. The parable is explaining what is happening (and will happen). The seed represents the word of God. The same word fell on different types of ground, having different results. Some have used this as teaching we should be careful what sort of ground we sow into, but this is not what Jesus did, nor is it what the early church did. The word was preached to all, and so had the wide variety of effects that we see. No one is to be deprived of the chance to hear the gospel. Sometimes the results are very disappointing or frustrating, but when the seed falls on good soil the crop is amazing. A tenfold increase would have been considered good, so a hundredfold is extremely good. Mark’s version (Mark 4:8) says “thirty, sixty or a hundred fold”. This is probably because Jesus told the parable on more than one occasion. Alternatively, the point is the large increase, the precise size of the increase is neither here nor there.

8:9,10

The disciples asked Jesus to explain the meaning of the parable. We might wonder why they could not see the point? Surely the purpose of a parable is to make things simple, yet it seems to fail to have that effect. Then Jesus says “to you it has been given to know...”, yet they did not seem to know much at all! So what is the difference between them and the “others”? It is that the disciples have Jesus, they can inquire of Jesus. Their natural intelligence or spiritual insight is no better than that of anybody else, but they have come to learn from Jesus. We need to have the same attitude, one of humility and teachability. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to teach us. Even if we have several university degrees, all of us can be spiritually thick! If a person will not come to Jesus, then they will never see the truth.

Luke 8:1-3 - Women followers

8:1

A feature of Luke’s gospel is the number of references to women. We do not appreciate just how liberating the gospel was for women in the first century. Jesus went around “proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God”. The kingdom brings true freedom. It is noteworthy that it is in countries that have a Christian heritage that there is the greatest level of equality and freedom. Sadly, and at our cost, western nations in their pride, arrogance and stupidity are now abandoning that heritage as quickly as possible. There will be a heavy price to pay for this folly, and it will be paid most by the weakest in society.

8:2.3

Luke tells us that Jesus was followed by some women who had been “healed of evil spirits and infirmities”. Tradition links Mary Magdalene to the sinful woman of the previous chapter, but this is only tradition so we should exercise some care. However, we do know that she was set free from seven demons. Demon possession is a real issue. Much of the church ignores it altogether, this is a mistake. But part of the problem is that when churches do take the matter seriously they often go about it in a cack-handed manner. Usually it is done as something scary, yet if we look at the gospel accounts we generally do not find that. Jesus knows how to set people free from demons, we should expect Him to do this in our day.

There were many other women who followed Jesus, some of whom came from reasonably well-off backgrounds. Moreover, these women helped to provide financially for Jesus and the disciples. Women played a key role in the progress of the gospel from the very beginning.