Luke 6:17-19; the Virtue of Him

Have your Bible, and whence you turn with me to

Luke chapter six. So today we're gonna do just verses seventeen, eighteen,

and nineteen here in Luke's Gospel chapter six. Now only

Matthew and Luke give us this little piece. But Matthew's

is just a brief one sentence or two sentence piece

about Jesus. It's just a transition. Really, Luke gives us

a little bit more, which is why I wanted to

treat this before we move on to his sermon, because

we have beginning in verse twenty, the sermon on the Plane,

which is the same as the Sermon on the Mount

in Matthew. And we'll talk about the difference here in

just a minute. And it just again goes to show

you how wonderful it is when you have you know,

you have three four gospel writers, and they're giving you

their different perspectives, and they're writing out of their own

lived experience, and the Holy Spirit is using that to

create something wonderful. And Luke, because he's Luke and he's

he's a little more detailed because he's, you know, a doctor,

he's he's seeing things in a unique way. So he

gives us a little bit more here than any of

the other gospel writers do well, Matthew, I should say,

so we're going to read just these two verses three

verses here seventeen eighteen nineteen, and I'm going to entitle

the message the virtue of Him of Him. What do

you think of when you hear the word virtue. Here's

what we mean when we use that word, and this

comes from Webster. Virtue is a trait or quality considered

to be morally good, excellent, or desirable. It represents behavior

that aligns with moral excellence, righteousness, and doing the right thing. Now,

it can also mean valor, potency, and chastity. So when

you may think of when I use that word virtue,

you may your mind may go to, for example, Mark

chapter eight, when the woman with the issue of blood

is Mark chapter eight or is that Luke chapter I

think it's Luke chapter eight. The woman with the issue

of blood touches him, and Jesus turns around and said,

vert has gone out of me. You remember that. You

also might think about the Proverbs thirty one woman, because

there twice it said of her that she's virtuous. Who

can find a virtuous woman? That's there in verse ten.

Then the writer goes on to describe her and concludes

by saying, many daughters have done virtuously, but Dalk sells

them all. So we might think of that. You might

think of a mother. Usually we think of ladies when

we think about this. You might think of a mother

in your family, or a grandmother, someone who demonstrated the

quality of virtue. But men can demonstrate this quality as well.

And what we're going to see in Jesus is the

quality of virtue demonstrated throughout this entire Patrick passage. Now

it's mentioned in nineteen, but you're going to see how

virtue extends throughout the entirety of the passage. So we're

going to consider this virtue of Jesus today as we read,

and won't we go ahead and do that? And then

we'll have word of prayer beginning here in seventeen, chapter

six Luke's Gospel. And he came down with them and

stood in the plane, and the company of his disciples,

and a great multitude of people out of all Judea

and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tire and Sidon,

which came to hearing and to be healed. Of their diseases,

and they that were vexed with unclean spirits, and they

were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch him,

for there went out of him, For there went virtue

out of him, and healed them all. Father, would you

give us your insight today and give me unctions? I preach?

And Lord, we just asked that you would strike the

rock today and let the water flow rivers in the desert. Father,

in the desert, Father led the spirit of God have

his way here as we consider this wonderful word, feed

your flawed today, Father, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

So you'll notice there in verse seventeen, he's been up

on this mountain. He went there? When did he go there?

In verse twelve, he went to the mountain to pray,

and he continued all night, and we talked about that.

Last time he's there praying, he calls his disciples to them,

and then he chooses the twelve. So they're up on

the mountain, the disciples in Jesus. Now they're going to

come down, so it says they're in verse seventeen. And

he came down with them and stood in the plain.

So he came down with him. Let's just stop start there.

He came down with them. Notice the condescension of Christ.

He's always coming down. We see the theme of condescension,

and there's so many places in Luke's gospel, beginning with

the birth narratives. In the birth narratives in Luke chapters one, two,

and three, we see the father sending the son as

a child. We see him afterwards subject to his parents,

and he went down with them, it says they're in

Luke two. He went down with them and came to

Nazareth and was subject under them. Can you imagine that

the very son of God's subject to human parents. We

see him after the temptation and the rejection at Nazareth

coming down to Capernaum, and it just says simply there

that he came down to Capernaum, the city of Galilee,

and taught them on the Sabbath days. So again he's

coming down. He's condescending to his people. He's teaching they

need to be taught. Paul, of course, gives us the

greatest insight on this. It always can be found there

in Philippians chapter two, being found in the fashion of

a man he humbled himself because obedient unto death, even

the death of the cross, Jesus humbled himself and became

a man. So who would ever imagine that God would

humble himself in such a way that he would rub

shoulders with men, be subject to parents, teaching a synagogue

overseen by men. This really describes the loving kindness of

the Lord that he initiates this coming. He's coming down. Now,

what's he coming down to? Can you imagine the crowd?

Luke just calls it a multitude. He's got his disciples

and the Twelve and they come down from the mountain,

and then you've got this group. And like I said,

Luke just calls it a multitude from Judea and Jerusalem,

tire inside of just people coming from everywhere. And it

says he stood in the plain. Now this plaine. Luke

or Matthew says, he's on the mountain. Well, we've been

on a mountain. Now he's come down. But it's very

likely that he was on the top of the mountain

and then when he came down, he came down to

a mesa. I think that's what we would call it.

It's just a tabletop somewhere on the mountain. He's still

on a mountain, because you could still go down from there.

But there's a flat place there, a mesa or a

plane there somewhere on the side of that mountain that

can host this great multitude of people. So Jesus comes

down with his disciples and the twelve, and he stood

in the plain. So notice there he stood there. Here

we have the accessibility of Christ. His condescension is described

again in his coming down with his disciples, and he

knows what he's coming down to, and he just stands there.

He stood in the plane. No doubt they were already

starting to gather when Jesus and the disciples and the

twelve came down. Jesus doesn't run from the multitude. I

probably would see that many people that scare me to death.

He doesn't hide behind the disciples. Nope, what's Jesus do.

He stands there and allows them to come to him.

He received all that came to him on that day,

and no one was turned away disappointed. Jesus stood there

on the plane. And John records, of course there in

John eight, although the Father giveth me, this is Jesus speaking.

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me,

and him that cometh to me, I will then know

why is cast out? He is not turning anybody away.

He never does. All that come to him he receives.

So here he is standing on the plane. This multitude

is just Can you just imagine them crawling up the

side of that mountain to the top of that that masa,

that plain there on the side of the mountain, and

there Jesus is, and they're all coming to him. He's

not going to turn anybody away. Even in John, we

have both condescension and reception. Jesus is still accessible and

still receives men with as much grace as they need.

He still condescends to men. In the preaching of the gospel.

The spirit of God still calls men. The will of

the Father is still active. All that the Father giveth

me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me,

I will in no wise cast out. He says there

in John chapter eight, verse thirty seven. Perhaps Jesus is

standing and the spirit of God is calling, and if

you come to him, he will not refuse you. He

will receive you. Do you see now the virtue, It's

virtue in his condescension, it's virtue in his receiving men,

the grace, the loving kindness that's expressed here. Now I

noticed the extent of his ministry. Now we have an

illustration here. I think of the concentric rings. That's what

I'm gonna call it, the concentric rings of nearness to Christ.

So he begins with the disciples, it says, and the

company of the disciples, So this is the closest group

to him. This now would have included the apostles. So

we have the disciples and the apostles, and they're coming

down with Jesus. So the apostles and the disciples, those

who are following him as learners, they're there with Jesus.

The rabbis of that day were gathering disciples to them

to teach, and in that way we're propagating their doctrine

and interpretation of the Torah. Jesus was considered a rabbi.

As a matter of fact. The disciples call him that

in the gospels. You know when when he's in John

chapter four, when he's sitting at the well and the

disciples come back with the lunch, they say, Rabbi, please eat,

So they call him that teacher. They call him the teacher.

He's the rabbi, so he's the teacher, and everybody around him,

this inner group, is learning from him. They all the

rabbis had schools. As a matter of fact. In the

peer k Vote the chapter of the Fathers, it says

that we are to make make many disciples, and that

the rabbis to that very seriously. They wanted to teach

as many so that more and more people might know.

Because once they teach their group, those people can teach

their next group because they're going to go out to

make disciples. So Jesus is doing what the rabbis have

always been doing. He's gathering disciples and he's teaching, So

they're doing that. We see this with John the Baptist

also had disciples. I'm sure they called him rabbi as well.

And look into rabbinic history we see it with other

famous rabbis. One of the ones that we know from

the New Testament Gamaliel. He had his own school, and

still Jewish scholars were referred to Gamaliel's teaching. Yet today

these people believe that Jesus is the Messiah. These disciples

that came down with him from the top of the

mountain and they've probably these people, these disciples, they've probably

been healed, delivered from all manner of evil. Jesus had

forgiven their sins. Think of the gathering Damoniac, who, after

his deliverance, was sitting at the feet of Christ. There

in Luke chapter eight, when they went out to see

what was done and came to Jesus found the man

out of whom the devils were departed sitting at the

feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. Can

you imagine? And why is he sitting at the feet

of Jesus because he wants to be a disciple. I'm

sure called himself a disciple. He's sitting there, he's got

clothes on, and he's listening. He's in his right mind.

He's not screaming and caterwauling like he had been. No,

not now, because Jesus had healed him. Yeah, So here

we have in that case this fellow sitting there. And

of course, later on in that story, in verse thirty eight,

he says, the Luke tells us, now, the man out

of whom the devils were departed besought him that he

might be with him. So he wanted to go with

Jesus and just remain his disciple. But Jesus sent him away, saying,

return to thine own house and show how great things

God hath done under thee. So He's gonna send him

back to the cities so that he might declare the

wonders of the Lord. These disciples leaving Jesus, these ones

that come down from the mountain with him, They're going

to receive the benefit of Christ's teaching and an affirmation

of his power, grace, loving kindness, his virtue as he watches,

as they watch Jesus receive all these folks, and he's

going to heal every single one. Can you imagine if

you're a disciple of Jesus watching that, hearing him teach

and watching that, my goodness, what would that do for

your faith? We can in the contemporary church overlook the

need of disciples to receive the teaching of Christ. When

we over emphasize evangelism, we must remember that the preaching

of the entire Council of God is the greatest tool

of evangelism. Such a preaching and teaching ministry not only

meets the needs of the disciples, but strengthens their hands

for the work of a vangelism and calls men and

women to Christ as the Holy Spirit does his work

in their hearts. It is our responsibility to preach the

entire council of the Word. And that's what was so

One of the things that was so unique about jesus

ministry in this first century setting was he was teaching

God's word. The Pharisees weren't doing that. They were teaching

their traditions. We've already seen that collision between Jesus and

the Pharisees over food and fasting and so forth. They

were teaching tradition. Jesus called it old cloth, old wine, skins.

Jesus was teaching something new, but yet it was the

thing that they should have been teaching God's word. Now,

notice the next concentric ring of relationship. The Jews a

great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem.

They are now coming. Okay, so Jesus is still in Galilee.

Luke seven to one tells us that he entered again Indigapernaum.

So leaving the wilderness area in Galilee, he goes back.

So this is where we are, some mountains somewhere in Galilee.

That's where Jesus is that's where this crowd is gathered.

These are his own people, these Jews that come out

of Judea and Jerusalem. John said that he came into

his own and his own receipting. Not these are his own.

These are the people of Abraham, seed of Isaac, of Jacob.

These were the ones that the prophets prophesied to. Paul

said of them, quoting from Romes chapter nine, Who are Israelites?

To whom pertaineth the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the

giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises?

Whose are the fathers? And of whom, as concerning the flesh,

Christ came, who is overall God blessed forever. Amen. So

the Jews, did you see that? Notice that list the adoption,

the glory of the covenants, the giving of the law,

the service of God, the promises, the fathers to whom

Christ came. They were there to hear their messiah. Jesus

was there to teach them. These were his people, and

they're the ones that he was promised to come to.

You see, God was shining a bright light. Not that

really doesn't do it justice. God was shining a spotlight

on Galilee It was so bright that everyone paid attention.

They saw that bright light because everybody's getting healed, everybody's

being delivered, everybody's learning about the word of God. Everybody

is encountering the Messiah. It's a bright burning light. No

one could ignore it. This wasn't happening in a corner somewhere.

God was doing a thing, and even people in the

countries around Palestine were hearing about this and coming to

see Jesus. This is a bright burning light God is

put on Galilee, Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem. This bright light was

burning so brightly that everyone knew what was happening, and

it was meant to be that way. When Messiah came,

everyone was gonna know. And notice the third concentric ring.

This is the final outside ring of relation to him.

The gentiles from the sea coasts of Tire and Sidon.

So Galilee was on fire with the ministry of Jesus,

and Tire and Sidon were north of Galilee, and so

people there had heard about Jesus. And no wonder, I mean,

the word got out that everyone was being healed, delivered, transformed, forgiven,

made right, crooked things made straight. How could you not

hear about that, and they're coming from those sea coast areas.

The glory of God is attractive. Luke reminds us of

the committe Jesus gave the disciples. Do you remember this

and acts one? But you shall receive power after the

Holy Ghost has come upon you, and shall be witnesses

under me in both Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and in the

uttermost parts of the earth. We have that being played

out before us, that outline for the mission of the

church being played out before us right here on this plane,

on this Mesa somewhere in Galilee is Jesus stands there

in the plane. We have these concentric rings gathered around him.

They've all come for one purpose. Notice what Luke goes

on to tell us, which came. So we're talking about

all those groups disciples, the Jews from Judea and Jerusalem,

and all the Gentiles that came from Tyron side, and

they came to hear him. They came to hearing. So

here's the multitude. Their first need was what was their

first need to be healed of their disease? Nope, their

first need was to hear God's word taught. And Jesus

is going to do just that the foundation of Christ's

ministry among men was always his teaching. Luke has made

it clear that the teaching of Christ was where all

this began. The healing ministry was a byproduct of his

teaching ministry. And what did he teach. He taught the scriptures,

the revelation of God. No doubt he was reading, expounding,

and applying it to his ear as well. We saw

part of that in Luke chapter four when he went

to synagogue in Nazareth, and what di he to do

when he got there? He opened up the scroll and

read from Isaiah sixty one. I'm sure that every time

it tells us that he went to a synagogue to teach,

that's exactly the thing that was playing out. He was

teaching God's word. He taught in their synagogue, being lordified

of all. Luke tells us there in chapter four, verse fifteen,

he came down to Capernaum, a city of Nazareth, and

taught them on the Sabbath days. And they were astonished

at his doctrine, for his word was with power. That's

Luke four thirty one. He entered into one of the ships,

which was Simon's, and praying that he would thrust out

a little from the land, and he sat down and

taught the people out of the ship. That's Luke chapter five,

verse three, came to saw on another sabbath, he entered

the synagogue, had taught, and there was a man whose

right hand was withered six six, And then again here

in six What were we at now six eighteen six?

This is still seventeen, isn't it came to hear him

there in seventeen which came to hear him and to

be healed of their diseases. Yeah, Why would these be

people be interested in hearing Christ teach? They were thirsty,

They were thirsty for truth. Their souls were Amos said

in his prophecy in Amos chapter eight, Behold the days come,

saith the Lord, that I will send a famine in

the land, not a famine of bread or a thirst

for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Friends,

that famine has been repeated in lands today ever since

the time of Christ, a famine for hearing the word

of the Lord. And in Palestine in this first century

it's happening. There's a famine for hearing the word of

the Lord. And so these people are coming because they

want to hear what he has to say. He's teaching

God's word, and they know there's something different. His teaching

was with power. The land was in a full blown femine,

but not for bread, for the preaching of the word

of God. I think maybe today in America we have

that same famine happening. We got lots of people that

don't have a problem with bread. They do have a

problem with the Word of God. They don't have enough

of it. Their second need was for deliverance, and you'll

notice they're in verse seventeen to be healed of their diseases.

So their need is deliverance from physical sickness. These dear

folk knew that they were sick, coming to Jesus bowing

themselves before him, thirsty in their souls, sick in their bodies.

They teach us that they had given up on all

conventional means, and they had placed themselves before him like

the leper in Chapter five, and the leper said, Lord,

if you will, you can make me clean. This teaches

us that the broken heart finds grace before the Lord.

He's nigh to them. The Psalma says that are of

a broken heart and saveth such as be of a

contrite spirit. And again the Psalma says, the sacrifices of

God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart,

Oh God, that will not despise. And you know what

sometimes happens to us is it takes us to have

a broken body before our spirit will break enough for

us to say, Oh God, save me a sinner. And

these people come with broken bodies. But the broken body

is not really the problem, is it. Oh that's a problem, surely,

but it's not the problem. So what's going to happen.

It's not just the broken bodies that are going to

be healed, but it's the spirits on the inside. And

where does that happen. Well, it starts in with him

teaching the word of God. Notice how far some of

them came. They came from Tire and Sidon. Walking from

tire and Sidon to somewhere in Galilee would take you

about a week. Can you imagine a week that's a

week there, I don't know how long I'm going to

be there, and a week back. That's two weeks plus

maybe two and a half a week, two weeks. But

when you know your condition and you know that Jesus

is the only hope for your condition. Guess what you

make the track. Their third need was deliverance from spiritual illness.

Notice they were healed of their diseases, and then it

says and they that were vexed with unclean spirits and

they were healed. So he Luke separates for us the

two events. The healing we have, the teaching, we have,

the healing of their bodies, and now he's going to

mention the healing of their spirits. They weren't just sick

with physical amblance, but the spiritual diseases also. I wonder

whether Luke meant that their spirits were unclean. Notice it

says they were vexed with unclean spirits. Not demons who

possessed in mac Us, but souls so soiled by sins

that we're vexed day to day with weariness. I wonder

if that's part of what he means here. Now, surely

he means demons, because we've seen that ministry happening in

the in the life of Christ up to this point.

He's casting out unclean spirits and demons, and we've even

heard the demons speaking to them saying, we know who

you are you know you're you're Christ, You're the Christ,

You're the son of God. And Jesus would tell him

to be quiet, So we know that that's happening. But

I just wonder if maybe the vexation that Luke is

pointing to includes those who have sick spirits? How many

of us are vexed with unclean spirits? Again, not demons

who possess in maucus, but souls that are just soiled

by sin. How awful is it for sin? For Christians

not to make a short list of sins. We avoid

the prayer closet because we don't want to admit our sins,

and our souls become vexed with uncleanness because of it.

I wonder if this was also for the disciples who

hadn't kept a short list. We can go to him.

He will not cast us out. We can fall on

our face before him and pound our hearts and say,

be merciful to me a sinner. He'll receive us every

single time, because it's the contrite heart that God respects.

So what's the result? The results? Wonderful? You notice here?

To get you add together the condescending Christ plus the

Christ ready to receive broken hearted men and women, plus

some multitude with needs both physical and spiritual. And what

is that equal? A whole multitude sought to touch him.

Nothing could keep them from Jesus. Nothing. I remember when

I was saved, Nothing was going to keep me from Jesus.

I knew, I knew I was going to him. I

would have him or nothing at all. I can remember

that weekend. All I knew was I had a sin problem,

and that Jesus died for me and offered me the

gift of eternal life and freedom. Ladies and gentlemen, there

wasn't a door strong enough to keep me away. What

a wonderful thing to find out that Jesus came for me,

He stood in the plane and waited for me. And

don't you know he knew the names of every single

one of those people. And as they're coming up that

side of the hill, walking towards him on that flat spot,

he's calling them out in his mind. There's Jane, there's John,

there's Paul, there's Silas. He's calling them all out by name,

and they're coming to him, and nothing is going to

keep them from them from him. And notice the intangible

power of God here there went out virtue. For there

went virtue out of him and healed them all. That's

verse nineteen. The Greek word translates here virtue means power,

So why not use that word? Why not use power

here instead of virtue. Well it's this word dunamus. We've

had it so many times before. We know this particular

Greek word, but here it suggests something else. John Gill

went my favorite commentators. He wrote this, the power that

came out in great abundance was like water from a fountain,

without his speaking word or using any gesture such as

laying his hands on them like a fountain. Another commentator

said that this was like an effusion of tangible power,

like a golden oil that just leaked out of him.

Notice that it says there he healed them all. Everyone

nobody went away disappointed. See this is the ministry of

Messiah in that day, everyone's being healed. I guarantee you.

By the time his ministry was done and he was

headed to Jerusalem, there wasn't a person in Judah, Jerusalem, Galilee,

Tire or Sidon that didn't know the name Jesus and

didn't know somebody who had been touched by Jesus. They

all heard the stories, they knew him because virtue had

gone out of him. But it wasn't just the power

that was there that was present to heal. We've already

had that. You remember the story of the four friends

that let the man down on the couch, and it

said in the passage right before that that power was

present to heal. It's more than that. It's his condescension.

It's his willingness to receive all that come to him.

It's his relationship with all those people and his teaching

the word of God to them. All of that is

involved here. The power that comes that just oozes out

of him because he is the son of God. All

of that is wrapped up in this idea of virtue.

It's potency, it's valor, it's bravery, it's grace, it's loving kindness.

It's all of it wrapped up into one incomplete English

word for us, and that word is virtue. The Lord

God was shining a bright light on Galilee. It was

a light that the Jews had longed to see. This

was no fakery, This was no snake oil salesman, no trickery.

Everyone knew it. Everyone was being healed. And healed with

things impossible to heal, and Jesus was the one doing that.

We got a lot of fakery and snake oil salesman

walking around today. And maybe I'm more sensitive to this

because I've been reading John MacArthur's book called Strange Fire.

He talks about the snake oil salesman, the healers that

are out there, and one of the questions that he

asks is how they don't ever just show up in

a hospital and do their work in a hospital. If

you go to one of their meetings, and I've been

to several, after the meeting is over, you know what

you see. You see all the disappointed people that came

in wheelchairs and on walkers and beds and sick children

and all the rest. Everybody had put their hopes in

that event, and guess what. So many of them, most

of them go home broken hearted because they didn't get

what they came for. You know what happened here on

this plane. Everybody was healed. They were healed physically, they

were healed spiritually. They heard God's word, the disciples were encouraged.

All of it happened. Why because Jesus was there doing

that work. That's why how do we apply this? Well,

the very first thing is Jesus came down for you.

He's ready to receive you. You will not find that

anywhere else, but you will find it in Christ. All

that the Father gives me Jesus said, will come to me,

and whoever comes to me, I will in no wise

cast out. If you're in Christ? Are you being taught?

Are you truly a disciple? We call ourselves disciples. But

how often do we sit at the feet of Jesus.

We have him right here. The Spirit of God has

given us a record is just as if we were there.

This inspired word, ladies and gentlemen so often lays unopened

in our homes. It's fine, and it's wonderful. I'm glad

you do it. I'm glad you bring the bibles and

you open your bibles here on sunny morning. I would

have it that way, But I also would have it

that you go home and open your Bible as well.

How important is your discipleship? How far will you travel

to touch Christ? And then, finally, a word of warning,

be careful of the healers, the snake oil salesman who

promise miracles and revival of Christ's ministry of healing. It's

not going to happen. It happened once. It happened for

a reason. And now we read about what Jesus did

and we know that he has the power to heal

and save today. But it's not like it was on

that day. So be careful to the ones who make

promises that they cannot keep. Jesus has come for you.

Jesus is ready to receive you. Jesus wants to teach you.

Jesus is ready to clean up your vexed, unclean heart.

Would you bow with me to your Father. We thank

you for this picture of Christ. How wonderful it is. Lord.

We find ourselves there in the crowd, and perhaps we

have a need today We might reach out to you,

Father and call on you for that need, perhaps a

simply need to confess sin. We know Lord, that you

can clean up our dirty hearts. The Holy Spirit can

do a sanctifying work. Father, that you would bless us

today and give us strength, We pray in Jesus name. Amen.