As we come into this study we are following the fact that our Lord Jesus had just told the seventy disciples that He sent out that they should not rejoice in the fact that Jesus gave to them some temporary power but rather rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven (Luke 10:20). With this thought in mind we will dive into this next section of Scripture that we will see as a praise towards God the Father from our Lord Jesus. In this praise towards the Father we will notice that these serve as truths about those that are recipients of eternal life.
We will also recognize that the time of Jesus’ ministry until today is a time in God’s redemption like others before had not seen. What I mean by this is that the coming of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus began a time of redemption that was different than before. It was not because of the miraculous or some supernatural working of miracles but it was because of the revealing of the Holy Spirit that was to be revealed through the New Covenant which the disciples of Jesus were experiencing in some form and would be initiating at Pentecost. We see the benefits of this powerful work of God as the Holy Spirit works in us like never before since that day of Pentecost.
With this in mind we will now move into our first point for this study.
1.Jesus’ rejoicing PRAISE to the Father.
Look with me at Luke 10:21 At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.
As we start looking at this praise towards the Father from our Lord Jesus, we must keep in mind that these are truths that He is speaking concerning those that have been born again. The rejoicing of our Lord is an expression of praise for the fact that our God has set in motion and completed what was needed for redemption. Also we see that Jesus speaks these words as if they had already took place. Those before the cross that were given eternal life did not miss out on the benefits of salvation but they too are recipients of salvation through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God looks forward to what will happen and graciously applies the sacrifice of His Messiah to those that were alive and died before Jesus completed the work on the cross. Also we must note that our Scripture says that Jesus rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit. This Scripture is another Scripture that we can easily see the Triune God. Jesus the Son is praising the Father in the Holy Spirit. There is no way to deny that the Triune Godhead is 3 Persons in One. To do so would be damaging to the text of Scripture and serves as a heresy that is trying to make sense of a God that somehow manifests Himself in 3 different ways.
We then see here that Jesus starts off by saying I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. The word in the Greek used for praise is a word that expresses agreement and confession of that agreement. Jesus is not only in a time of verbal adoration to the Father’s work of redemption but is in complete agreement with what He has done.
Also we see that Jesus is not rejoicing because God is a God of love and has set out to redeem all of humanity but rather as He states in Luke 10:21b that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.
Well this will bust many peoples idea of what they believe salvation is about and how God initiates salvation. We must remember that no one can understand the Gospel on their own. We are blinded, dead in our trespasses and sins, we are living for self and are without hope in this world without Christ. No single person can crawl out of our self righteous, sin loving hole without God revealing Himself to us.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25 really explains this truth very well, it states: For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved. 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent. 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? 21 For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached. 22 For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. 24 Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, 25 because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
The fact is that God has chosen to reveal these truth about salvation He says to infants. Now this is not a call to baptize babies or say that a baby can repent and be saved, this is a reference to the way a person accepts Christ. We can not come on our own just like an infant does not choose when he or she is born. We can not come on the wisdom we have from religious experience just like a baby does not have wisdom to come and go as they wish. We can not come to God in arrogance but we must come to God as an infant or child that clearly humbles themselves in submission to their parents.
In a discussion about this we need to see what Jesus says concerning this in Matthew 18:1-4 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever therefore will humble himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
The Christian will only come to God humbly and because this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. We can not arrogantly think that we are smart enough or good enough to come to God when and where we want. God has decreed this and it is the fact of God’s sovereign will that will carry over to our next point.
We go from Jesus’ Praise to….
2.Jesus’ sovereign PURPOSE for believers.
Look with me at Luke 10:22 All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
Many people will look at this point and say that they want to know what purpose God has for their life but that is not really the idea of this point. Truthfully our purpose is found in the work of making disciples that can come in many different ways depending on the giftedness that God has given to each of us. This point is set up to look at God’s purpose or sovereign will concerning believers. We have already established that we can not come to Jesus without God the Father first revealing to us the reality of our sinfulness and the facts of the death and resurrection of our Lord that has been given to us for salvation.
Now we see that Jesus has been given this authority of revealing to people about the Father. There are so many people that will stand in opposition of what the Bible clearly says here. People will think that they have somehow received some revelation about salvation because of their own ability or because God knows that their heart is really good. But that is not the message of the Gospel. The Gospel tells us that none are good, none seeks for God and that we can not come to Christ unless the Father draws that person.(Romans 3:10-11; John 6:44)
Here in our Luke text there is no hidden interpretation but we see clearly that God the Son has been given the authority from the Father to reveal the Father to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Why do people think they can go to God when and how they want? Why would we think we can go to God when we are ready? I believe it is because we live in a culture where we decide what we want to do more than ever. But we must understand that God does not change His ways because of our cultural views. Jesus’ sovereign purpose for the believer is the fact that He has revealed to you what you know. Yes God uses the means of preaching, yes God changes you as you engage in Bible reading and study but it is only when God wills that you will come to Christ.
This does not give to us some arrogant attitude because of thinking that God chose me over another but it humbles us to realize that we are undeserving just like the rest of the human race and yet He gave to me His mercy and grace anyway.
The first truth in the praise of our Lord showed to us that we come to Christ like a child or infant in humbleness and dependence on the Father. In this point we have seen the truth that Jesus has given to us something we do not deserve but was provided in His sovereign will. This leads us to look now at our last point.
We went from Jesus’ Praise to Jesus’ sovereign Purpose and now we will see….
3.Jesus speaks PRIVATELY to His disciples.
Look with me at Luke 10:23-24 And turning to the disciples, He said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, 24 for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them.”
We must make no mistake here but rather recognize that Jesus was showing the disciples that they were the one’s that have been given this revealing of the Father. They may have had the power to heal, they may have seen the miraculous that Jesus gave them power to do for this moment but the real miracle is the grace of God given to these 70 men. When the text says the disciples I do believe that this would include the 12 disciples along with the 70 that had just returned from their mission. As always there was probably a big crowd around Jesus when these men returned and He speaks directly to them.
Either way you think of it whether you believe He turns just to the 12 or whether you believe He turns to speak to the 70, the importance comes with what Jesus says. He starts by saying Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, 24 for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them.
All through Jewish history there were prophecies of the Messiah. There would be the prophecies from the Bible and also other traditions that many had hoped to see in their lifetime. The fact is these men that were truly following Jesus had seen far many more things than all of the other prophets and kings before them. This is the very thing the Old Testament prophets and kings of Israel had so longed to see and here these were seeing this first-hand.
Jesus then says along with that they wished to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them. Never before had they heard the message of the Kingdom proclaimed as they did from Jesus. Never had they heard the sound of joy from those that had been healed and never had they heard the Messiah speak to crowds. Jesus spoke with authority and power. They may have had the prophets, they may have had the priests and kings but they did not have the very Messiah, the Son of God as this generation had. For that reason Jesus speaks of their blessedness.
But also it wasn’t just the physical sound that was pleasing but it was what was said. The very things they saw and heard were the evidence of salvation. It was the evidence of God’s grace and mercy that gave to them more than just some earthly victory but eternal life that would be the ultimate victory.
This is something that most professed Christians do not understand. They do not understand that eternal life is the reward that brings to us joy. Material health and wealth are a blessing if God so graciously gives that to us but it is the message of the Gospel that gives to us the blessing that is beyond anything we can comprehend, that is eternal life.
Are you blessed because you have seen the working of God in your life spiritually? Do you see the Holy Spirit working in you?
Are you blessed because of the words of the Gospel and because those words bring to lost sinners eternal life?
Disciple's Direction 