#31. Luke 4:42-44 CARRYING THE
GOSPEL TO OTHERS
Introduction:
In our previous text
the people of
numbers
bringing their sick and afflicted to Him that they might be healed.
Jesus ministered to them way into the
night healing all the sick who were
brought
to Him.
The people of
friends. They went to great effort to bring them to
Jesus that they might
be healed. The primary lesson in this for us is that we
ought to be just as
much concerned about the souls
of our family members and our friends.
In
fact we ought to be a lot more
concerned about the souls of our loved ones
than they were about the
physical health of their loved ones. We
ought to
be willing to make a lot
greater effort to bring our unsaved loved ones to
Christ that they might be saved than those
people did to bring their sick
loved
ones to Jesus that they might be healed.
Out text today deals with a similar theme. It still deals with the
theme
of caring about the physical and spiritual well being of others.
The difference is that this lesson focuses
not on the need of our own loved
ones and friends. It focuses on the need of strangers. It focuses our
attention
on carrying the gospel to those who are strangers. Another
difference
is that this text focuses attention not on bringing people in to
a given place, but on our
going out to them--our going out to them with the
gospel. It talks about carrying the gospel to others.
I.
The request of the people for Jesus to stay
Let us now look at the text. V.
42, "And when it was day, he departed
and went into a desert
place..." Mark tells us that
actually Jesus arose
long before daylight and went
out alone into an isolated place. Mark
said
that He went there to be alone
in prayer. Now if Jesus needed to spend
time
alone
with God in prayer, so do we. We ought
to spend a great deal of time
alone
with God in prayer.
(V. 42), "...and the people sought him, and came unto
him..." Mark does
not mention the people coming
to Him, but speaks only of Simon Peter coming
to Him. When we add what Mark says to what Luke says,
we see that Jesus
went out alone before
daylight. Then after daylight the people
of the city
of
gathered
there the night before. They had been
there the night before well
into the night before, but now
they are back bright and early next morning.
They are there to see Jesus. They are excited about Jesus and they could
hardly
wait to get back to see Him. I think I
know how they felt. I have
never
yet had the privilege of seeing Him and listening to Him speak. I
have anxiously waited to see Him
these forty-six years since my conversion,
but I have not had that
privilege yet. I am not worried. I know that I
will see Him some day soon.
But here was this great crowd of people gathered outside the home of
Simon Peter and Simon Peter went out to
see them and see what they wanted.
It did not take long for him to learn that
they wanted to see Jesus. By
this time, however, Jesus was
gone. Apparently Simon Peter knew where
Jesus
was or where He usually
went. Mark says that Peter went out to
find Him and
to tell Him that the people
were anxious to see Him and talk with Him.
I gather from what Luke says that the crowd of people followed pretty
close
behind Simon Peter. Just about the time
that Peter got through
telling
Jesus that the people wanted to see Him a great crowd of them showed
up. (V. 42), "... and stayed him, that
he should not depart from them."
I gather from this that the people were aware that Jesus did not usually
stay in
headquarters
and so He came often, but He did not stay long when He came.
The people knew that if He followed His
usual pattern that He would soon be
gone again.
Luke says that they "...stayed him..." The Greek word that here is
translated
"stayed" means "to hold on to; to delay someone by holding on to
him." They literally
caught hold of Jesus with their hands and held on
tight. They would not turn loose, at least not for a
while.
They not only held on to Him with their hands in an effort to keep Him
from leaving them, but they pled
with Him with their words. They asked
Him
not to leave them. They said, "Please don't go; please stay
here at
II. The Lord's call of duty to other
people
To say the least, this was encouraging.
It was a far cry from the
reception
that He had received at His own home town of
too, they c hold on Him, but
not to keep Him from leaving. They
caught Him
and drove Him out of down and
sought to throw Him headlong down a bluff to
His death. Here at
catching
hold of His garments and they are pleading with them to stay at
I feel sure that the Lord's heart was touched by the great show of
acceptance
which they gave Him. If it were not for
the call of duty, I am
sure that He would have liked to
stay with them. In the plan of God there
will come a time when He will be
with His people and He will never leave
them. He loves His people and really wants to be
with them.
But in this case the call of duty does beckon to Jesus. V. 43, "And he
said unto them, I must preach
the
therefore
am I sent." You see, even though
Jesus loved these people and
would
have loved to stay with them, yet there were others that He also loved
and it was needful for Him to
go to other people.
In fact it was more than a pull of His own
heart to go to the other
people,
it was a direct command from God the Heavenly Father. Jesus said
that He had been sent to these
other people. God the Father had
instructed
Him to go. He must go or else be disobedient to God the
Father.
It was also very logical for Him to go to other areas and preach the
gospel
in other areas. He had already
repeatedly preached the gospel at
was sent from God. Many of them had already believed in Him as
the Christ,
the Messiah, the Son of God. In other words, many of them were already
saved
as a result of His ministry in that city.
When He would leave
the gospel to those who were
yet unsaved in the city. Those who had
heard
Him and seen Him and believed on Him as
the Savior, would still be there
spreading
the good news.
But there were many town and villages throughout
yet seen Him. They had not yet heard Him. They needed to have an
opportunity
to see and hear Him. So Jesus would not
stay as the people
requested. He would leave them and go to other cities
and towns and
villages. He would do what God the Father had sent Him
to do. He would go
and preach the gospel of the
Now you will observe, that Jesus said nothing about needing to go to
other
places in order to heal the sick. He
would heal the sick when He got
there. But the reason for Him going was never to
heal the sick. He went
there
to preach the gospel of the
V. 43, "And he preached in the synagogues of
Jesus went from city to city, town to town
and village to village.
Wherever He went He was asked to speak in
the Jewish synagogue on the
sabbath
day. His fame as a speaker had gone
ahead of Him. They were
anxious
to see Him and anxious to hear Him. So
far as I know, without
exception,
He was asked to speak in all of the synagogues that He visited.
This was what He went for. This
was what He was sent for. He was sent
to preach the gospel to those
people. Now, as I said earlier. I am sure
that the people brought sick
folds to Him that He might heal them.
But the
main point is that not only did
some people get healed; some people got
saved! That was what it was all about. He was there to seek and to save
those
who were lost in sin. Then when He would
leave that place to move on
and go to another city or
village He would leave saved people behind who
would
help to spread the gospel to others.
Luke said that He went throughout
He would go, He would preach the gospel
and some would be saved. When He
would
leave, He would leave a nucleus of saved people behind who would help
to spread the gospel word to
others.
I want you to see another thing.
Jesus was preparing for the time when
He would no longer be here on the earth
and He would leave a church behind
to carry on His work in the
world. He would leave the church at the
city of
gospel
throughout the world. He would want them
to organize churches in
every
place they could.
What Jesus was doing was laying the groundwork for them in all the
cities
and villages where they would go.
Wherever the disciples would go
went throughout
waiting
to start a church there. They were
waiting for the missionaries to
come from the
spite
of the opposition from the Jewish leadership, there would be a ripe
mission
field in
start
churches throughout the land.
III. The call of duty for Christians today
But I did not take all of this time telling you all of these things just
to entertain you. Neither did I take all of this time just so
that you
would
be better informed of what took place way back there nearly 2,000
years
ago. I have told you these things
because I wanted to make a point.
I have told you these things because they
should help us to better
understand
what God wants out of us as a church.
God wants us as a church first to be concerned about our own lost loved
ones and our own friends and
neighbors. He wants us to do like the
people
of
might
be healed and even so we are to make every effort to bring our unsaved
loved
ones and friends to Jesus.
Last Sunday I gave you some suggestions how you might go about doing
this. That is, I gave those suggestions to those
who were able to be here
during
all that sleet and icy roads. I want to
briefly relate them to you
again. One thing you can do to bring your unsaved
loved ones to Jesus is to
bring
them to church. Many of the unsaved who
regularly come to church get
saved. If they will not come to church, bring them a
gospel tract. Most
likely
they will read it and it will tell them how to be saved. Bring them
your own personal
testimony. Tell they about the time that
you were saved.
Tell them how you felt about your sin and
about eternity and about hell and
about
heaven. Tell them that you called on
Jesus and asked Him to save you
and that Jesus heard your
prayer and saved your soul. Point out to
them
that Jesus will do the same for
them if they will trust Him. Further I
suggested
that if they still do not get saved, then bring them to your
pastor
providing they are willing, of course.
After you have already done
all of that witnessing to them
there is just a pretty good chance that I may
be able to lead them to Christ
for salvation. At least I stand a lot
better
chance
of doing so after you have witnessed to them and prayed for them.
But as I pointed out in the beginning of this message, the text that we
have before us today does not
talk about bringing people to Jesus.
Rather
it talks about going out and
carrying the gospel message to them.
There is
a difference. We may think that if we have tried to bring
someone to church
to hear the gospel that this
is all that God requires of us. Not
so. In
our text Jesus made it crystal
clear that He had been sent to go out to
other
places and carry the gospel the people.
God the Father would not have
been satisfied for Jesus to take
the attitude, "They know that I am here in
was to go where they were. He was to carry the gospel to the people out
where
the people were. He was to go to them in
the big cities. He was to
go to them in their
villages. He was not to wait for them to
come to Him.
He was to go to them.
Then in John
sent me, even so send I
you." Listen, it is great when we
bring someone to
church
and they get saved. But that is not
enough. That is not all that
the Lord requires of us to
do. We are to go out to the unsaved and
carry
the gospel message to them.
We are to do this on a local basis.
We are to go out into the
neighborhoods
around us and carry the gospel message to those who are
unsaved. To use an expression from the Scripture which
is so familiar, let
us go into the highways and
hedges and spread the good news. This is
what
we could call "local
missions."
We are to do this on an area wide basis.
This could be called "county
or regional missions."
We are to do this on a state, and interstate basis. This is state and
interstate
missions.
We are to do this on a foreign basis.
This is foreign missions.
Now let me emphasize to you that this is not optional on our part. We
are either going to do what He
has commanded us to do or we are going to be
negligent. At the best we would be negligent. At the worst, we would be
outright
disobedient. If we are deliberately
disobedient, woe be unto us.
He has set us an example that we should
follow His example. He specifically
instructed
us to follow. As the Father had sent
Him, even so He sends us.
Let me see now if I can suggest to you some practical ways of carrying
out our Lord's
instructions. First and most important,
let us personally go
out to the unsaved and let us
personally carry the gospel message to them.
Let us carry the gospel message to a many
as we can. Let each one of us do
this. It makes no difference whether they are rich
or poor whether they are
good or bad. They all need to be saved. They all need Jesus.
Then there are a lot of people that we cannot personally go to. So let
us help to support missions
and help somebody else to go to them.
People in
every
village and city of the world need the Lord.
They need to hear the
gospel
message. They need to hear it from me
and they need to hear it from
you.
Conclusion:
Even those of you who are unsaved right here in this service need the
Lord.
Without the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior you will spend eternity
in the fires of hell. I am asking you here this morning to call
upon the
Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. I am asking you to turn to Him before it
is everlastingly too late.
Then there are those of you who are already saved. Will you go and tell
others? If so, will you tell the Lord right now that
you are willing to go
and tell someone about Jesus
and will you ask His help in doing so. I
am
not asking you to raise your
hand. But I am asking you to make a
commitment
to God that you will reach out
a helping hand to those who are lost and hell
bound.
I am asking you to carry the gospel to them.
Won't you do it? Won't
you make the commitment right
now?