564. Gospel of Luke - Chapter 8 (#1) - Many Women Minister to Jesus - May 30, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs. I'm prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today.

[00:00:26] I pray that you give everyone ears to hear and a heart to receive everything you have in store for them today. I ask this in Jesus name, amen. This is Proverbs 30 beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:42] The words of a Guru, the Son of J. Kee, His utterance. This man declared to Ithiel, to Ithiel and you cow. Surely I am more stupid than any man and do not have the understanding of

[00:01:00] a man. I neither learned wisdom nor have knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended into heaven or decended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment?

[00:01:18] Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name and what is His son's name if you know? Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in him.

[00:01:35] Do not add to His words, less he review you and you be found to lie. Two things I request of you, deprive me not before I die. Remove falsehood and lies far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food allotted to me.

[00:02:00] Lest I be full and deny you and say who is the Lord? Or, lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. Do not malign a servant to His master. Lest he curse you and you be found guilty.

[00:02:23] There is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother. There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes. Yet is not washed from its filthiness. There is a

[00:02:38] generation, O how lofty are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are like swords and whose fangs are like nides to devour the poor from off the earth

[00:02:57] and the needy from among men. The leech has two daughters, give and give. There are three things that are never satisfied for, never say enough. The grave, the beren womb, the earth that is not

[00:03:16] satisfied with water and the fire never says enough. The eye that mocks his father and scorns obedience to His mother. The ravens of the valley will pick it out and the young eagles will eat it.

[00:03:34] There are three things which are too wonderful for me. Yes, four, which I do not understand the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship

[00:03:51] in the midst of the sea and the way of a man with a virgin. This is the way of an adulterist woman. She eats and wipes her mouth and says, I have done no wickedness. For three things the earth

[00:04:10] is perturbed. Yes, for four it cannot bear up. For a servant when he reigns a fool when he is filled with food, a hateful woman when she is married and a maid servant who succeeds her

[00:04:27] mistress. There are four things which are little on the earth but they are exceedingly wise. The ants are a people not strong yet they prepare their food in the summer. The rock

[00:04:42] badgers are a feeble folk yet they make their homes in the craigs. The locus have no king yet they all advance in ranks. The spider skillfully grasps with its hands and it is in king's palaces.

[00:05:02] There are three things which are majestic in pace. Yes, four which are stately in walk, a lion which is mighty among beasts and is not turned away from any. A greyhound, a male goat,

[00:05:19] also, and a king whose troops are with him. If you have been foolish in exalting yourself or if you have devised evil put your hand on your mouth for as the churning of milk produces butter

[00:05:38] and ringing the nose produces blood so the forcing of wrath produces strength. Friends today I'd like to go over verses 32 and 33 and proper 30 verses 32 and 33 tell us this. If you have been foolish in exalting yourself or if you have devised evil put your hand

[00:06:08] on your mouth for as the churning of milk produces butter and ringing the nose produces blood so the forcing of wrath produces strength. Friends we will go over those two verses

[00:06:26] prior to closing today but what I'd like to do right now is continue in our study of the gospel according to Luke. Now in yesterday's podcast we finished by talking about a woman who

[00:06:43] realized that she was a sinner and she found out that Jesus was at a Pharisee's house and she went over there and she poured some expensive perfume on his feet and anointed them with oil

[00:07:00] and the Pharisee asked why she did that. Friends we're going to pick up today in chapter 8 and the first few verses talk about many women minister to Jesus so let's begin chapter 8 verse 1.

[00:07:19] Now it came to pass afterward that he went through every city and village preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God and the 12 were with him and certain women who had been

[00:07:36] healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary called Magdalene out of whom had come seven demons and Joanna the wife of Chusa herid steward and Susanna and many others who provided for him from their substance. Now friends no other gospels mentions what Luke is mentioning here

[00:08:08] in other words women were a vital part of the following of Jesus and many women would follow Jesus basically wherever we went. A lot of times I think we get trapped in thinking basically only

[00:08:25] the disciples followed him but there were a number of people that would follow Jesus wherever he went. The first point that I want to stress is that many women minister to Jesus and also I want to go

[00:08:43] to the first verse and it says he went through every city and village preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. Now friends we could very easily overlook that verse but

[00:09:01] what this first is telling us is that Jesus went all out in order to share the gospel. He went to every city and every village I wanted to think about that as he's going now of course there's

[00:09:18] no cars at this time and everywhere they went they had to walk so they have sandals on their feet and I think they did a lot of walking but every single village they came to he didn't skip a single one.

[00:09:37] Every single one he stopped and he preached and he brought glad tidings of the kingdom of God. Now friends I think that at times that meant he didn't give sermons they were just friendly to people.

[00:09:55] They just shared with people they enjoyed meals with people. They just hung out with some people. Now I'm sure that Jesus would throw in a little bit of preaching pretty much everywhere he went

[00:10:12] but what I really want to get across is the true nature of who Jesus was. Jesus met the people where they were. He got to know people. He asked them how things were going.

[00:10:28] He wanted to find out what they were doing and how they were getting along. And I think that is very important because a lot of people have a real misconception of God and Jesus said

[00:10:45] I don't do anything unless I see my father doing it so a lot of people have this notion that God is an angri God but God is a loving God and Jesus only did what he saw his father doing.

[00:11:04] Let's go to verse 4. These next five verses are entitled The Parable of the Sower and when a great multitude had gathered and they had come to him from every city. He spoke by a parable. A Sower went out to sow his seed and as he sowed some fell

[00:11:29] by the wayside and it was trampled down and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock and it soon as it's bring up it withered away because it lacked moisture and some fell

[00:11:47] among thorns and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it but others fell on the ground. Sprang up and yielded a crop a hundredfold when he had said these things he cried

[00:12:06] he who has ears to hear let him hear. Now friends the second point that I want to bring up is Jesus talks about a Sower going out to sow his seed. Now friends I will go over the explanation

[00:12:28] of this parable on Mondays podcast but the point I really would like to bring up is that more seed did not produce fruit then that which did produce fruit. There are four different types

[00:12:49] of seed mentioned here and only one provided fruit of the Sower. The rest of it was damaged it was eaten, it was taken away it basically was worthless. Let's go to verse nine.

[00:13:06] Then his disciples asked him saying what does this parable mean and he said to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God but to the rest it is given in parables that

[00:13:24] seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. Now friends I am reading out of the Nelson study Bible and I'd like to share the commentary in my Bible for that verse because this

[00:13:44] is a verse that I've always struggled with and always tried to reason and try to figure out exactly the point that Jesus was trying to make here. This is the commentary. Jesus' parables both concealed and revealed truths. His parables contained fresh teaching, mysteries concerning the kingdom

[00:14:13] of God. The disciples were privileged to learn the truths of the parables for other listeners the parables served as judgments that concealed truths as the reference to Isaiah chapter six indicates on occasion a parable was understood by an outsider but was not accepted.

[00:14:44] Thus still functioning as a message of judgment. So friends I am maybe making a supposition here but I believe that Jesus would speak to the disciples in parables as well.

[00:15:02] That I truly believe that because they were so intimate with Jesus and they got to see him all the time. They got to see the Jesus that most people did not get to see. When Jesus was preaching in the

[00:15:21] synagogue or in a town square everybody was listening but the disciples were able to eat meals with Jesus. They would eat meals. They I don't know if they had coffee at that time but they

[00:15:38] would share drinks and meals and they got to know the real Jesus. I hope that makes sense but friends if you hang out with somebody on a regular basis you get to know them more intimately

[00:15:56] than the majority of people who followed Jesus did. Yes there were people that would follow Jesus pretty much everywhere he went but they found a place to stay at night. They would stay in their homes

[00:16:12] or they would stay maybe in motels. They didn't stay where Jesus and the disciples were. Friends before we close today I'd like to go back to our proverb of the day and we were

[00:16:26] getting ready to finish the month of May so we are in proverb 30 and I'd like to take a look at the last two verses of this chapter and verses 32 and 33 say this. If you have been foolish

[00:16:44] in exulting yourself or if you have devised evil put your hand on your mouth and other words stop what you're doing. The Bible tells us that God resist the proud that's what this verse is talking about. Let's go to verse 33 for as the churning of milk produces butter

[00:17:14] and ringing the nose produces blood so the forcing of wrath produces strife. So let me read the commentary. I think this is very revealing. The Proverbs of Aguar conclude with warnings against boasting and trouble making. The phrase put your hand on your mouth means

[00:17:45] stop it. The idea is if you are in the middle of making trouble and suddenly realize your foolishness stop right then before things get worse and I hope you get the gist of what it is I'm trying to say here.

[00:18:07] Sometimes you start in a conversation and start going down a certain path and something happens in the conversation stops or ceases and you have an opportunity to reflect and say oh my gosh

[00:18:24] I'm not headed in the right direction with this conversation. Let's just put an end to that and let's go in a different direction and that's what this commentary is telling us and these two

[00:18:37] verses at the end of Proverbs number 30. So hopefully that makes sense to you and friends I often talk about the importance of our words and I want to remind everyone listening that our words are

[00:18:53] supposed to edify people. They are supposed to build people up not injure people or make them feel bad. So always be cognizant of the words that are going to come out of your mouth because we do not want

[00:19:12] to bring strife. Friends my call to action today is this. A. Gore was a man who wrote Proverbs as did Solomon. This is a powerful proverb and what I'd like for you to do today

[00:19:30] is actually read, read, this proverb go over these little segments that A. Gore is talking about. These little things of three and four, three and four and really try to hone in on them.

[00:19:51] And ask God what it is that he is trying to get across in these verses about these things. Friends I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. If there is anyone listening today and you've never taken that

[00:20:13] step, I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me right now. Jesus I recognize that I am a sinner and indeed of a Savior. I ask that you come into my heart. I ask that you lead me and guide me from this

[00:20:30] point forward. I make you my Lord and Savior. Friends if you said that prayer, I believe that you are now in the family of God. Welcome to the kingdom. Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:20:48] The Lord make us stay shined upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Friends, please join me again tomorrow as we close out the week with wisdom today.