Bible Study series: Luke 6:17-19. This is a good summary of Jesus’s ministry.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
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Scripture: Luke 6:17-19
17 He came down with them and stood on a level place, and a large crowd of his disciples and a large crowd of the people from all of Judea and Jerusalem and the district of Tyre and Sidon 18 came to listen to him and to be healed from their diseases, and those troubled by unclean spirits were healed. 19 And the entire multitude was trying to touch him because power came out of him and healed them. (Luke 6:17-19)
Comments:
I was surprised—as if I saw it for the first time—that Jesus began his extended teaching after he healed the sick and expelled demons. The word and signs and wonders go together and reveal the inbreaking of the kingdom. But Renewalists must combine teaching and ministry together without leaving one part behind. Bock: “A key note is struck in reference to the curing of demon possessed people … The picture is a great spiritual battle with spiritual forces. Jesus fights the spiritual forces that seek to destroy humanity” (p. 565).
17:
This launches his Sermon the Plain, which begins at v. 19. Not enough information is given to know where this sermon took place. I believe that the Sermon of the Plain or Plateau is a different teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. Every teacher knows that variations on repeated themes happen (see vv. 20-21).
Judea and Jerusalem were in the south, and Tyre and Sidon in the far north, on the Mediterranean coast.
His listeners: the apostles, the disciples, and the people.
“disciples”: see v. 1 for more comment.
18:
“troubling”: Demons cause trouble in the mind and body. Rebuke them in Jesus’s name, and they will leave (see the next term, “healed”).
“healed”: It is interesting that people with evil spirits needed healing. It is best to fill the former victim with Scripture, so he can resist Satan, just like Jesus did at his temptation (Luke 4:1-13). Teaching him to submit to God (Jas. 4:7).
Bible Basics about Deliverance
In the subject of systematic theology, please see these post for a more developed theology about Satan and demons:
See my posts about Satan in the area of systematic theology:
Bible Basics about Satan and Demons and Victory Over Them
Magic, Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Fortunetelling
19:
“entire multitude”: it is stunning that every person in the crowd—or maybe Luke is making a generalized statement. But it is still stunning that people thronged him to be healed. I wonder how he felt about it. He must have had compassion on them (Matt. 1:43; 14:14; 15:32; Mark 1:41; 6:34; 8:2). But I still wonder whether this wore him out, since he had to get away and pray (Luke 5:16; 6:12).
“trying”: it could be translated as “seeking,” which is in the imperfect tense because the action was continuous (imperfect means incomplete action). The crowd did not act only once, all together. As he walked through them they reached out to touch him.
“touch”: in this context it means “touch for a blessing or healing.” So your reaching out to Jesus must have a purpose—blessing and healing. It is interesting that they reached out to him, but I can imagine that he also touched their hands, as well.
“power”: it is the noun dunamis (or dynamis) (pronounced doo-na-mees or dee-na-mis, but most teachers prefer the first one). It is often translated as “power,” but also “miracle” or “miraculous power.” It means power in action, not static, but kinetic. It moves. Yes, we get our word dynamite from it, but God is never out of control, like dynamite is. Its purpose is to usher in the kingdom of God and repair and restore broken humanity, both in body and soul. For nearly all the references of that word and a developed theology, please click on:.
What Are Signs and Wonders and Miracles?
Let’s take a step back and look at vv. 18-19. Those verses qualify to be the favorite ones of Renewalists who go for healing. God’s power, they say, can come out in a special way and manifest healing power. It is difficult to argue with them from their point of view, two thousand years later. Jesus, however, was God in the flesh, so he was able to heal in special atmospheres or in ordinary atmospheres, as he cooperated with the Father and the Spirit. Yet, I still wonder whether the crowds of people did not have a certain level of their own faith. Now great healings—spirit, soul and body—were about to happen. However, today, healing evangelists take this idea of “the power came out of him” too far. They have super-intense worship and wait and wait until something “clicks” or “pops.” The evangelist is usually up front guiding the audience with flash and showiness. Message: “I’m the anointed one! The power flows through me!”
In contrast, we need to calm down the intensity and dial down the volume, for God is always there, eager to bless his people with healing and forgiveness of sins. We don’t need to go through intense magical rituals to drag a reluctant God down from heaven. He is our loving Father, not an erratic genie or mean butler.
I don’t like to say it, but I believe that if a healing evangelist had this much power coming out of him, he would become arrogant and raise money from bottling up this power. (I would probably do the same or be severely tempted to grab the attention and raise money from this power.) That is one reason why healing virtue does not flow like this, though I concede that sometimes healing power does come out of some of them some of the time. But so far, I have never seen so much power coming out of a healing evangelist, such that that crowds throng him, and everyone gets healed and delivered just by touching him.
Once again, it is an amazing and humbling passage for us Renewalists who believe that healing happens today.
GrowApp for Luke 6:17-19
1. Study Heb. 13:8. Jesus healed powerfully back in his day. Does he still heal today?
2. Do you have a miracle healing story or know of one? How did you respond? Please share it.
RELATED
11. Eyewitness Testimony in Luke’s Gospel
3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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