Proclaiming the Kingdom of God
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
One of the most misunderstood and historically distorted of Jesus’s followers recorded in the New Testament is Mary Magdalene!
Consider this...
From the earliest days of Church History, misunderstandings have abounded about the identity of Mary of Magdala.
She has been mistaken for the woman caught in adultery;
For the sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet;
For Mary of Bethany, who also anointed Jesus’ feet;
And for the Samaritan woman.
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Some of the confusion surrounding Mary Magdalene’s identity has been due to how common her name was.
Mary, or Miriam in Hebrew/Aramaic, was the most common name for a woman in Jesus’ day.
(Simon, incidentally, was the most common man’s name).
In fact, one-quarter of all Jewish women at the time bore the name Mary.
In the New Testament alone we meet at least six.
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Additionally, many in Western church traditions have somehow gathered the impression that Mary was either a former prostitute or had some kind of sexually immoral past.
Since this is not in Scripture, where did that impression come from?
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Though it probably originated earlier, this idea likely gained the most traction after Pope Gregory I (aka Gregory the Great) gave a homily in 591 AD, in which he claimed that the anonymous sinful woman in Luke 7:36–50 (which we covered last week) and Mary of Bethany, who anointed Jesus’s feet in John 12:3–7, both referred to Mary Magdalene.
Though there is no textual ground for this conclusion, it became a dominant interpretation for many centuries, creating a narrative about Mary that took hold in the popular imagination.
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So, who is the real Mary Magdalene?
And who are some of the other faithful women who not only followed Jesus but also financed His ministry?
Those and other questions will be answered in today’s message.
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So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 8 and focus on verses 1 through 3.
Our message this morning is titled, “Proclaiming the Kingdom of God”
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This message today will focus on the good news that Jesus was proclaiming...
And the individuals who contributed to Jesus’ ministry.
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So, this morning we will cover three main points:
The Message...
The Women...
And...
The Financing.
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Heavenly Father...
The God of of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob...
Your name is above every name!
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Thank You for allowing us to serve You...
Thank You for having mercy on us even while we were your enemies.
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Equip us with the full Armor of God so that we may endure any spiritual warfare...
And guide us in every aspect of our life.
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Forgive us as we forgive others...
And help us to always do your desire and will.
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And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
Amen.
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
1 Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him,
2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) The Message
1) The Message
Verse 1: Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him,
This opening of our passage is a summary of another preaching tour of Jesus...
The previous preaching tours recorded by Luke are found in Luke 4:13-14 which says:
13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.
And another preaching tour was recorded in Luke 4:43-44 which says:
43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”
44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
You see Church, Jesus’ three year ministry was focused on traveling throughout Isreal to proclaim to all about the good news regarding the Kingdom of God...
This news was first delivered to the Jews and would start to spread to the gentiles which we see in full swing with the ministry of the apostles as recorded in Acts and the epistles.
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In passages like Matthew 4:17 we see that it was essential to the Gospel presentation to include the call to repentance...
That was the call to action regarding the news that the Kingdom of God was at hand:
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
So, Jesus models for us what faith teaching and preaching should look like...
Without a call to repentance we have not really shared the good news...
We have not shared what one must due to be saved.
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As Jesus was sharing the good news from village to village and synagogue to synagogue...
He displayed incredible acts of healing to show proof that He was acting in the will of God...
Additionally, those healings showed that Jesus came with the power to heal both physically and spiritually...
No disease or affliction was to get in the way...
And likewise no ones past life of sin could get in the way of the one who desired to repent and believe in Him...
As Matthew 4:23 says:
23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.
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Jesus declared that this was his mission and the purpose He was sent to earth as Luke 4:43 records:
43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”
And after proclaiming that message and spreading the truth throughout Isreal Jesus accomplished the act that made the coming of the Kingdom of God good news...
He voluntarily gave up His life for us...
He allowed Himself to be arrested...
He allowed Himself to be tortured...
He allowed Himself to to bruised and beaten...
He allowed Himself to be whipped and have the flesh ripped from His body...
He allowed Himself to be mocked and striped naked and hung on a tree...
He allowed Himself to be pierced for our transgressions...
For for the coming of the Kingdom of God to be good news...
First Jesus Christ had to make a way for His elect to get in right standing with God the Father...
So, when the Kingdom of God comes in it’s fullness all who put their trust in Him will be called the Children of God!
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Even after Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the dead three days later Jesus continued to preach the same good news regarding the Kingdom of God...
As Acts 1:3 says:
3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
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During Jesus’ ministry and spreading of the good news of the Kingdom of God...
Many were used by God to aid in this most essential and Nobelist of tasks.
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The twelve disciples were with Jesus and engaging in the preaching and teaching of the Gospel...
But that was not all.
There was anther group that provided aide to the ministry of Jesus...
And that was the group of women that were following Jesus after He had changed their lives...
And this takes us to our second point.
2) The Women
2) The Women
Verses 2-3(a): and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna,
Jesus was shacking up how the world commonly did things...
Jesus was no respecter of man made customs or traditions...
So, His actions often times shocked the masses...
For example, the way Jesus treated women actually raise the status of women...
And allowed them to serve Him in ways the world wouldn’t tolerate.
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You see Beloved, in the 1st century rabbis refused to teach women...
So, Jesus’ acceptance of women into His group of followers was unusual and truly counter cultural.
An itinerant ministry like Jesus’ was common, and support from women was common...
But it was unusual for women to travel with a rabbi like in the case here with Jesus’ ministry...
But again, we don’t take our direction from mere men..
We follow God’s standards and it was right for women to be taught and from women to follow Jesus...
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The same is true on the other extreme...
Giving women roles never intended for them like having women serve as elders and pastors is following the foolishness of men...
God in His wisdom and perfection appointed men to fill the office of pastor/elder...
And Scripture is crystal clear on that point regardless of what some falsely claim.
Just look with me at 1 Timothy 2:11-1 Timothy 3:2:
11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve;
14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.
1 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.
2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
Many stop reading the end of 1 Timothy, chapter 2 and forget that Paul’s thought process which is inspired by the Holy Spirit continues uninterrupted into the beginning of 1 Timothy, chapter 3...
Chapter divisions and verse divisions although very helpful are not inspired by God and in an example like this can actually cause us to miss certain connections that someone reading the whole letter to Timothy in one setting would understand more clearly.
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So, let us both not restrict a women from doing what God would want her to do and also not have a women do what God never allowed for her to do...
As we will see with our passage...
While Jesus and the twelve were called to preach...
Women also had a very important role that was essential in the ministry of Jesus...
And that should be celebrated!
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Of the group of women who followed Jesus three were mentioned by name...
The first was “Mary” who was called “Magdalene” due to the Galilean town of Magdala were she was was from...
It is a city on the western shore of Galilee and not far from Capernaum...
It is identified with modern day Migdal.
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As we mentioned earlier, some wrongly believe she is the woman we talked about last Sunday in Luke 7:36–50 as it would have been highly unlikely that Luke would introduce her here by name for the first time if she were the main figure in the account he just completed...
Additionally, while it is clear that she had suffered at the hands of “seven demons,” there is no reason whatsoever to think that she had ever been a prostitute...
Simply put, we have no evidence from Scripture to believe that so we shouldn’t!
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Furthermore, Luke mentioned the fact that she has seven demons in order to show the severity of her problem...
Take into consideration what Jesus says in Luke 11:26:
26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
In addition to showing the severity of her problem...
Luke also shows the greatness of Jesus’ miracle of healing to be able to heal her from such a powerful and intense demonic possession.
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Mary Magdalene is also know for being present at very key moments in Jesus’ ministry...
Mary was present at the cross during our Lord and Savior’s crucifixion as is recorded in John 19:25:
25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
She was present at the empty tomb and one of the first eye witnesses of the resurrection of Christ...
And she was likely present at the Pentecost event as Acts 1:14 records this prior to the Holy Spirit coming down:
14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
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Next, our passage mentions “Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager” who is a woman not only of means but also of high social standing, for her husband is an administrator in the court of the tetrarch Herod Antipas, who imprisoned and executed John the Baptizer....
Additionally, she is possibly a source for some of the details Luke recounts about Herod in His writings.
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The third women mentioned is “Susanna” and aside from this reference, she is nowhere mentioned in Scripture by name...
She is probably someone Luke knew personally and someone the early believers knew...
Additionally, when the Word of God mentions the women that accompany Jesus she is likely in that group that is mentioned.
For example, Scripture referencing these three women and other women can be found in passages like Mark 15:41 which says:
41 When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
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Now, toward the end of the Gospel of Luke, he records that Jesus’ resurrection is announced first to a group of women...
This is an incredible act and again shows how Jesus was shattering previously held social restrictions on women...
You see Beloved, in the first century, women were not even eligible to testify in a Jewish court of law!
Yet, Jesus intentionally affirmed the full dignity of women and the vital value of their witness by having act as the first witnesses of the resurrection.
As Luke 23:55-56 records first the women prepared the spices and ointments that they expected to use on Jesus’ body:
55 The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid.
56 Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
Then, after resting on the Sabbath, take a look at what happens in Luke 24:1-11:
1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.
5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?
6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,
7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”
8 And they remembered his words,
9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.
10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles,
11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
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The women were not just at key moments in Jesus’ ministry...
They also played a major factor in the financing of His ministry...
And this takes us to our third and final point.
3) The Financing
3) The Financing
Verse 3(b): and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
The phrase “many others” and the relative pronoun “who” are both feminine in Greek...
So, this is referring to the larger group of women who supported Jesus and his disciples.
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The phrase “provided for them out of their means” is a reference to the Jewish custom for disciples to support rabbis with their own personal finances and resources.
So, this is in regards to financial support...
But also of food and lodging...
Elsewhere in Scripture we see other references to the group of women who were following Jesus providing support for both Him and His disciples...
As Matthew 27:55 says:
55 There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him,
As the New International Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says:
“Ever since the time that Jesus bade farewell to His carpenter’s shop in order to appear constantly in public as the Messiah and Redeemer, He was poor—altogether without possessions.
He never made use of His divine power to provide for Himself.
He, the Son of God, humbled Himself so deeply that He was willing to be served with earthly means necessary for His support at the hands of a small group of women whom He had healed.
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These women, or several of them at least, continued throughout the rest of Jesus’ public ministration, until His crucifixion, to follow and serve Him.
And when all His disciples (except the beloved disciple) had fled, some of the women attended Him as far as Golgotha and even as far as the grave, where they were also the first witnesses of His resurrection.”
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The act of engaging in full time ministry and having to depend on the kindness and generosity of others was something Jesus not only lived Himself but also what He taught His disciples...
Just take a look at this dialogue found in Luke 10:1-7 which says:
1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.
2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.
4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.
5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’
6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you.
7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.
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Some have the erroneous idea that the teaching of the Word of God since it is freely given mean that those engaged in full time ministry should not be paid for it...
But Scripture does not say that at all...
Galatians 6:6 seems to be pretty clear when it says:
6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.
Those who are in full time ministry have sacrificed making money in a traditional career...
Jesus was a carpenter in His earlier life...
But the moment He stated His full time ministry He no longer has a source of income...
So, those who believed His message supported Him...
And as our passage says...
Most of that support came from generous women.
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Even Paul the apostle who at times was bi-vocational and worked part time as a tent maker to have a source of income eventually was dedicated to full time ministry once he had financial support...
This is seen in Acts 18:5 which says:
5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.
The phrase “Paul was occupied with the word” is the reference to his transition to full time ministry...
In fact, in Paul’s epistles we see him mentioning that it was the Philippians who contributed to his financial support so that he can do what God has called him to do...
Philippians 4:14–19 says:
14 Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.
15 And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only.
16 Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again.
17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.
18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
By the Philippians partnering with Paul he was “well supplied” and able to solely focus on the proclamation of the Good News.
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Likewise, Paul defends fellow ministers and missionaries making it clear that they have a right to eat...
They have a right to have a family...
They have a right to make a living...
As the laborer deserves his wages!
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As 1 Corinthians 9:4–11 says:
4 Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
5 Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
8 Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same?
9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
10 Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.
11 If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?
Further more, Paul even makes it clear that those dedicated to the preaching and teaching of the Word of God are truly worthy of a double honor...
Just look at what it says in 1 Timothy 5:17–18:
17 Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”
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Beloved, ministers and missionaries and churches can’t function without brothers and sisters in Christ doing what they have been called to do.
Even, Jesus’ earthy ministry was funded by supporters and partners like the group of the faith women of God we have been talking about today.
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For those who have the financial means and have been blessed with the opportunity to be able to provide support...
Give to the local church...
Give to a missionary...
Give to a Bible-centered ministry...
Give to a faithful parachurch.
These laborers deserve their wages too!
For they are spreading the life saving message of hope of the Kingdom of God!
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like to share this that I came across in my study this week:
America’s economic health is partly dependent upon infrastructure:
Speedy roads, bridges, trains, electrical capacity, usable water, high speed internet, trained or skilled workers, etc.
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Healthy churches are foundational to getting God’s work done:
They support the missionaries, they impact their communities, they connect to others...
This is the Infrastructure of the Kingdom of God!
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So, as the church let us all do our part in whatever area God has called us to...
And let us share the Good News with those who need to hear it.
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To God be all the glory.
Amen.
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Please join us for one more song from the Praise Band.