With this study we start in on another chapter of the Gospel according to Luke. We have seen so much in relation to Jesus’ ministry so far and we are moving closer to the end of His Galilean ministry. We are somewhere in the range of about a year and 9 months to 2 years into the ministry of Jesus at this point in chapter 8 of Luke. The Galilean ministry takes a good portion of His ministry with about 12 to 18 months of that time that will conclude about two-thirds into chapter 9. But for now He still has many places to go so that He can proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God.
What we will see in upcoming studies will be the content in what He preached as He went into many places in the Galilean region. For this study we will look at His continual ministry and all it entails along with a look that goes a little deeper into the core group of people that is following Him at this time. This group will include the twelve apostles but also we will meet some of the women that followed along as well that were there to serve along side with them as they traveled around. Let’s look now at our first point for this study.
1.Jesus continues to preach throughout Galilee.
Look with me at Luke 8:1a And it happened that soon afterward He was going around from one city and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.
As always we point out that Jesus did not just go around healing and feeding people but that His primary reason for going from city to city was to preach and proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God. Now we know that these people would not be foreign to what God’s kingdom was and the fact that they longed to be in God’s kingdom proves that. What we notice is what Jesus is preaching and teaching, often is the true way of salvation, the true meaning of being a follower of His and what hypocritical living looks like. This all points to the fact that this preaching is in association with the kingdom of God. The good news of the Kingdom for us is not much different other than we are on the other side of the cross where we can proclaim the facts of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. The message was the same then as it is now, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
So many people focus on the miracles, the healings, the multitudes being fed that we tend to pass by the real reason why Jesus was going to different cities and villages. He told the people of Capernaum in Luke 4:43 “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.”
Just a little earlier in Luke 4, Jesus quotes from Isaiah 61:1-2a which is a messianic text and says in Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, 19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
Over and over again we see our Lord preaching and teaching the people. Of course we know that He heals and displays His deity before the people but it is the preaching of the good news that is His primary focus. I know that it seems like we talk about this a lot but I think as we see it come along in our text we need to point this out because of the push for the miraculous in so many different churches in our time.
The setting of this chapter really takes us away from the location where Jesus was at previously. Chapter 7 started out by telling us that Jesus was in Capernaum then traveled to Nain to raise the widow’s son, I believe He then He begins His journey back towards the area around Capernaum to go to other cities but was stopped by John’s disciples and invited by Simon the Pharisee to eat dinner at his house. Now we pick up the story where Jesus once again begins another journey throughout the region of Galilee. I think it is interesting that Jesus and His followers after Him often went to the same locations multiple times. They were not just interested in reaching every area alone but they made it a priority to go to these areas over and over again to reconnect with those there and to reach those that they didn’t the first time.
This brings us now to look at our next two verses in our next point.
2.Jesus’ core followers.
Look with me at Luke 8:1b-3 The twelve were with Him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s manager, and Susanna, and many others who were ministering to them from their possessions.
We know that many people are following Jesus because we have seen that many times. I’m sure at times people would follow Him then drop off from following if He went to far from their home. Here it seems that after leaving the area where they were at Simon the Pharisee’s house, that they broke away from the big crowd. It is possible that Jesus took them to a secluded location as we see Him do later in His ministry in the Garden of Gethsemane. Of course I am just speculating here but what we see in this text is the core group that follows Jesus. This we could say is the inner circle that was in close contact with Jesus all throughout His ministry. We know that there could be more that come along but I believe at this time these are the ones that seems to be with Jesus the most.
Let’s look at this inner circle or core followers. First we see the twelve which of course is a reference to the twelve apostles that He hand picked to come along with Him from the bigger group of His disciples. They are not listed here because Luke has already mentioned them but for the sake of our study I want to look back at who these men are. Luke 6:13-16 says And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles: 14 Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James and John; and Philip and Bartholomew; 15 and Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot; 16 Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
We are not going to go into detail here about each one of these men again but I point you to go and read or listen to our podcast on this section of Scripture that is titled The Calling Of The Twelve Apostles. That will be linked in the notes of the podcast or you can hit the link in this written study to go and read what we said then.
Let’s move on in our text to notice that Luke says of those that were following Jesus in Luke 8:2a and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses. I want to say something in light of the controversial topic of woman in ministry. Never do we see that a woman can not be in ministry or fulfill the great commission. What we do see is the distinct roles that woman and men have in the ministry. This topic has brought about many debates even in my own life and it should not be an issue because of what the Bible clearly shows us. Even in this text we will see that the woman did not have any role in being the leaders of this group. They were not called to be Apostles or leaders but only to come along in their God given role with the abilities they have been given by God.
Many people want to make this a cultural issue when I want to say that the first century church leaped every cultural issue that was needing to be jumped in the establishment of the church. They did jump over the issue of men and woman being equal as many woman are seen working in and around the early church, the church jumped over ethnic boundaries between the Jew and the Gentiles, the early church jumped over the problem of masters treating slaves bad and slaves taking advantage of masters. In no way do we think that God would not go ahead and allow woman to be leaders if He wanted that. Anyway I just thought that needed to be said here as we look at these woman that were of major help in the ministry of Jesus.
These woman were healed of evil spirits and sicknesses. The first one listed is the most well known, Mary who was called Magdalene. Contrary to popular belief there is not much connection showing that Mary Magdalene was the woman from Luke 7:36-50 nor do we have any proof of her being the woman associated with the story found in John 8:1-11, in fact that story is not even found in the oldest manuscripts and is debated to be actual inspired Scripture but that is for another topic. The thing is we have so many pre-conceived ideas about who this woman is from these wrong views of her that can not be found in the Bible. We also get some of these ideas from movies or shows that we have watched and again we must be careful to not do that even though I know that is a secondary issue and is not relevant to the doctrine of salvation.
So what do we know about her? We know that she was a woman that was following closely and even named in this inner circle. We know also that she was with the group of followers all the way to the end of Jesus’ life. We know from Mark 15:40-41 that she was at the crucifixion of our Lord as it says there: And there were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome, 41 who, when He was in Galilee, were following Him and serving Him; and there were many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.
Here we clearly see a reference to our Scripture in Luke 8. Mary was at the crucifixion and would also be the person to announce to the disciples that she had seen the risen Lord. Now let’s not get confused, she is sharing information and in no way being used as a leader established in the church as some people try to say about this. The entire account of Mary seeing the risen Lord is in John 20:11-18 but what we see in her announcing that Jesus had risen is in John 20:18 that says Mary Magdalene *came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.
In fact if you look at Luke 24:10 it says Now Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the rest of the women with them were there; they were telling these things to the apostles.
So yes she was indeed the one that maybe was the leader among the group of women but she was not more special in nature than any other of these woman. Luke 8:2b says that she was one that from whom seven demons had gone out. We have no other commentary on this from the Scripture but we can be satisfied in knowing that God did a miraculous work in her as He saved her from the chains of demon possession.
That moves us to just mention these other woman briefly because they are not spoken anywhere other than here and some of them at the crucifixion. Luke 8:3a says and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s manager, and Susanna, and many others.
Obviously this is not an exhausted list simply by the fact that Luke says “and many others”, this means many other women. We see in other lists containing women that Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee(Matthew 27:56); Jesus’ mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas(John 19:25); and also Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome(Mark 15:40b).
This list in Luke 8 provides for us that these women had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses and were following along in this group as those who were ministering to them from their possessions.
The only distinction in these other women is Joanna who was the wife of Chuza, Herod’s manager. She would have been a person that once was in line with the political government of the Jewish culture. But now along with the other women she is ministering to our Lord and His apostles throughout their journey. Notice that they were ministering from their possessions. This could very well indicate that they used their own wealth and possessions to support Jesus and His disciples as they traveled along from town to town. For sure they were women with a servant’s heart for the kingdom of God as they did not seek to demand a place among the 12 nor to be in charge. They only wanted to be used in the way God had planned for them as they followed along learning from our Lord and serving in whatever way would advance the kingdom of God. This needs to be noticed in our time as well with the topic of men and women roles in our established church setting.
Disciple's Direction 