Did the Disciples Understand the Cross? Luke 18 Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, good to have you back, and let's go right into the book of Acts where we left off in chapter 9, just for a second or two of review. Remember now, Saul of Tarsus, that religious zealot, I always like to refer to him as a raging bull, just trying to stamp out everybody and anybody who had anything to do with Jesus of Nazareth. Now, I know this may sound preposterous, but I do it only to make people think. If you and I would have been in God's position, what would we have done with Saul of Tarsus? Well, come on, what would you do? Hey, we'd have zapped him. I mean, after all, he was nothing but a renegade. He was doing nothing but upset everything. Get rid of him. Or at least punish him severely. But instead, what does God do? Saved him. Saved him. Now, what do you call that? Grace. See, that's what I want you to see. This is why he is not only the apostle of grace, he is the epitome of grace. If anybody was deserving of anything but, it was Saul of Tarsus. But now, wait a minute. Are we any different? Isn't that exactly what we were before we were saved? We were rebels. We were lost. We were condemned already. But what does God do? He saves us by his grace. And we're going to see that as we open up in just a little bit this timeline and make room for the age of grace. But all right, Saul of Tarsus now, as we left then last week, went straight to the synagogues and preached only that Jesus was the Christ. No mention of his power of resurrection or his having fulfilled the law by his death on the cross. And then we notice that God had to providentially get him out of Damascus, and he did not go up to Jerusalem. Now, the question came up, of course, in our break right after the last half hour, well, what about in chapter 9, verse 26, when it said that Saul was come to Jerusalem after verse 24 said, or 25 said, that they let him down the wall? Now, you have to know your Scripture. You've got to learn how to study, because Paul says so clearly in Galatians that he did not go to Jerusalem until a long time later. So what you have to understand is that between verse 25 and verse 26 is probably a three-year gap in time. Now, I'll go back to Galatians, and we'll pick that up. Galatians chapter 1, now this is probably one of Paul's earlier, not earliest, but one of his earlier epistles, and Galatians I like to compare with the Book of Romans. It's fundamental, it's the very rudiment of our Grace Age doctrine, and yet it does not get into those higher levels of church standing as Paul finally brings about in Ephesians and Colossians and so forth. But here in Galatians he's going to start at the very rudiment of our Christian period of grace. And let's just drop down to verse 4, for example. Now look at the change in language from what Peter and the apostles have been saying to what Paul now writes. Well, I suppose I should just start verse 1. And Paul an apostle, not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead. Now what's he already emphasizing? The resurrection, see? And all the brethren who are with me unto the churches and again the assemblies of Galatia, grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, comma, always watch your punctuation marks, who, speaking of Christ, gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father to whom be glory forever and ever. Now verse 6, I marvel, I'm amazed that you are so soon removed from Him who called you into the—not the law, but what ?—grace of Christ. And he said, and you're going to—what's the next word?—another, a different gospel. Verse 7, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert. In other words, they've been taking the gospel and they're twisting it, they're perverting, they're adding to it. And in our day and time, they do both. They add to it and they take it away, sad to say. But oh, listen, this is strong language now in the next verse, verse 8, but though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we—and he's using the word we in the first person, or instead of the first person—that which we have preached unto you, let him be what? Accursed! Now, that's strong language. That's awfully strong language. And then verse 9, he repeats it. Now remember, every word that Paul writes in his epistles are just as inspired by the Holy Spirit as any other portion of Scripture. A lot of people don't like to admit that, but it is. This is God speaking through this man to us. And he says, verse 9, in repetition, as we said before, so say I now again, if any. Now the word man is italicized, and what does that mean? It's been added by the translators, so it's not in the original, and I like it better left out. Or he says, if any preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. Now before we go any further, let's go back to 1 Corinthians 15 once again and pick up what Paul calls his gospel. Or, as I pointed out several weeks ago in Romans chapter 16, verse 25, Paul calls it the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which had been kept secret since the age began. Now what is that mystery gospel, that which was never revealed until it came to the apostle Paul? Here it is in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 1, 2, 3, and 4. Simple absolutely, so simple that a five-year -old can understand it, and yet so complex, I tell my classes, we could live to be a hundred and never comprehend it. It is just both extremes. But here it is, verse 1, moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. Now the article the, instead of the article a, designates what? One. That's what I want you to see. There's only one. You know, I've heard people even in my own denomination, sat with a fellow one time several years ago at a football game in which our kids were both participants, and we got talking about some of these things, and I was aghast. And he said, you know, Les, he said, I look at this religion bit sort of like our cow paths out in our pasture. They come from every which direction down to that pond where they can get their water. And he said, that's the way it is with all these churches and their religions. They're all coming a different direction, but they all come to get that same drink of water. Imagine, here in the Bible belt, a man who's been in church all his life making a statement like that. I just couldn't believe it. Listen, there aren't 15 different paths to heaven. There are not so many different ways to approach God. The Bible says there's how many? There's one. There's one. And a Muslim has to admit that it's the only way. A Hindu had better admit it's the only way. And everybody else had better admit it's the only way, because it is the only way. And yet we're so glib, and we're so ready to say, oh well, you know, if that's the way you want to believe, why, that's all right. Listen, there's an eternal lake of fire waiting for people, and we were just talking at break. I've often said down through the years, if Christians were as adamant and as energetic as the Communists were when Communism was taking over the world, we would have made an impact. Because you see, when a Communist got off work, where would he go? Party headquarters. And he would give the rest of his day to the party to enhance Communism. But what are Christians doing? Oh, we're sitting on our seat, and most of us are just blasé. And I don't believe in a militaristic Christianity, not by any means. And I know we can't force these things on people, but listen, most Christians today could care less about their neighbor. And I suppose I'm as guilty as anybody. But oh, listen, the gospel is the only gospel, and it's up to us to let the world know what it is. All right, read on. Which, he says, I preached unto you, verse 1, which also you have received, and wherein you stand positionally. We stand in our assurance of Christ's presence in our life, in this earthly life, and we also stand in the assurance that we're his in the life to come. It's positional. All right, read on. Verse 2, by which also you are, what, saved. I'll never forget, years ago, I hadn't been teaching very long, and we were having our coffee break, and one of the ladies sat down next to me, and she said, Les, I wish you wouldn't use that word saved. And I said, well, why not? Well, she said, it just sounds like such a narrow word. I said, well, what would you prefer I use? Well, she said, you could use converted, or, see, there are a lot of things that you could use without using the word saved. And I picked up my Bible, and I just went back through Paul's letters, and over and over, what does he say? Saved, saved, saved. It's the preaching of the cross, see, that to those who are perished is foolishness, but to those of us who are saved, it's the power of God unto salvation. So, it is a scriptural word, and Paul uses it over and over. Now, the word saved is just another English term from the root word salvation, see? We use it even in everyday language. If someone is in dire straits financially, and all of a sudden he has a rich uncle die, and gives him all of his estate, what would you say about the guy's financial affairs? Well, it was his salvation. He got saved from bankruptcy, see? And that's the way the word is used here. We are saved from that eternal doom that is waiting for if we do not believe. All right, go on. By which also you're saved, verse 2, if you keep in memory, and that just simply means if you know and you understand what I preached unto you, lest you have believed in vain. In other words, you have to know what you believe. You can't just hope that God thinks that you know, but you are supposed to know. And then he says, I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received. Now, we're going to go back to Galatians in just a moment, and where does he receive this? From the ascended, glorified Christ. All right, this which I received, how that, and here comes the gospel, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Now, what Scriptures is Paul referring to? Old Testament. See, all of this was promised in that prophetic program that Christ would die. Psalms depicts his burial. It depicts his resurrection. Psalms 110, verse 1 says his ascension, come sit at my Father's right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. It's all back there. And so Paul can rightly say now that all this was according to the Old Testament Scriptures. And then verse 4, and that he was buried. He was really dead. He just didn't go into a swoon like some would like to say. He didn't just go into an unconscious state. He died. And that was the reason for the three days and three nights in the grave, to prove that his death was complete. All right, and then read on, and he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, and it too is what? According to the Scriptures. It was all foretold that these things would happen, see? Now, this gospel then was unknown to Peter and the eleven. And you remember back in Luke 18? Let's go back and look at it, because I'm sure that we've got some here in the class tonight that weren't with us when we read it before, and hopefully we've got new people watching us week after week on television. But now in Luke 18, this is what I want people to see. This was not always known. It was kept secret as long as this Old Testament program was still on the scene. Luke 18, drop down to verse 31. Verse 31, And he took unto him the twelve, now this again is Jesus in his earthly ministry, and they're just about a few days from Jerusalem and the crucifixion. So he took unto him the twelve, and he said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, spitefully entreated, and spitted on, and they shall scourge him, and put him to death. And the third day he shall rise again. Plain, just as plain as you could get it. But read the next verse. And they, that is the twelve, understood how much? None. They understood none of these things, and this saying was hid. See? There's that word. And it was hid. It wasn't time for God to reveal, because he was still approaching Israel on this ground. And they had no idea that he was going to die, and be buried, and rise again, and ascend, and then turn to the Gentiles in grace. That was so totally beyond them. That's what I said a couple weeks ago. Peter didn't have the foggiest notion of what the gospel of grace was all about. Until then, read on. And this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken. Now unless someone says, well now Les, you're just using one verse, just on your way back to Galatians. Stop at John's gospel, chapter 20. John's gospel, chapter 20. And you all know the account of Peter and John running to the sepulcher after Mary had told them that he was arisen. Why they couldn't believe even her, let alone that they understood it before. And so they come running to check it out, and you know the account, how they finally went into the tomb, and they saw all the evidence that indeed he had supernaturally been raised out of that tomb. And then verse 8 of John 20, then went in also that other disciple, that is John, who came first to the sepulcher, and he saw the evidence. And then he what? He went and he believed. But until that he wouldn't have. And then verse 9, for as yet. Now remember, they've been with Christ for three years. They should have known the Old Testament, even these disciples. But it says, for as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Now isn't that plain? How can you get any plainer? They had no idea of this coming about of what Paul calls his gospel. Now let's go back to Galatians and see if we can chase down the Scriptures that show how God is all of a sudden, through this one man, going to reveal a change in the program. He's going to interrupt it. And I guess I might just as well erase it now, and then we'll fill it in again later. He's going to interrupt it right after the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the tribulation does not come in. And instead, we're going to have the introduction of the Age of Grace. Remember, I've had you put the parentheses and the dashes in some of those other Scriptures. But now comes the Age of Grace, what we call the calling out of the body of Christ, or we better refer to it as the Church Age. Now, I'm getting more and more definitive on that use of the word church, because very few people understand that the church is the body of Christ. Now granted, the local church is certainly a God-given entity, but not everybody that's a member of a local church is in the body. Believers and unbelievers—baptized or what? But there are no unbelievers in the body of Christ. That is something that God's in control of, and you can't get into the body of Christ unless you've experienced salvation, and the Holy Spirit places you into it. Now we'll see that in coming moments. Now back to Galatians then. Paul is defending his apostleship, and he comes down to verse 10, for he said, Do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For yet if I please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. In other words, you can't be both. You cannot be a servant of Christ and yet please men. I've found it out, and I think most believers find it out. I've come up with a little cliché that I'm sure is original with myself, at least I've never heard it or seen it in print, and that is this, that when it comes to the things of the Spirit, the majority is always wrong. Remember that. When it comes to the things of the Spirit, the majority is always wrong. Why do I say that? Well, when you came down to Noah's ark, what went into the ark, the minority or the majority? Well, a mighty small minority. And all the way through even the Old Testament and God dealing with Israel, what was the percentage of even the Jew that were genuine believers? Precious few. Oh, Elijah even had it so bad that he thought what? He was the only one. And of course, he wasn't that far out, but nevertheless, God said, I've got 7,000. How much is 7,000 out of probably six or seven million? What is that, 1%? Yeah, it's a drop in the bucket. And so all the way through, even during Christ's earthly ministry, how many believers do you think there were by the time He was through after that three years? Well, I tend to believe, and I stand to be corrected, and I may be wrong, but according to Acts chapter 1, the believers in the immediate area of Jerusalem numbered how many? 120. That's all. 120. And we have nothing to indicate that there were more than that. They all came together, and they gathered in that upper room. Now, I'm talking about the area of Jerusalem, not talking about the rest of Israel. But even after Christ's three years of earthly ministry, the majority of Israel had still said He's an imposter. They were wrong. And you come all the way up now for the last 1,900 and some years. For the most part, the majority of mankind has rejected the gospel, and that means what? They're wrong. So always rest on the fact that if you're going to be a true student of Scripture, you're going to be a child of God, you're going to be in a mighty small minority, and it's getting smaller every day. All right, now back to Galatians, verse 11. But he says, I certify you, brethren, I guarantee that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. Now what do you suppose he's defending right here? Well, I mentioned it, if not in this class, it was in the last one. What would have been the normal thing for Saul of Tarsus to do after being converted on the road to Damascus, knowing that those men had been with Jesus for three years? Wouldn't it have been normal for him to just go back to Jerusalem and say, hey, fellas, fill me in, tell me everything you know about this person, all that he taught you? But then he wouldn't have been able to say this. Then he would have had to say, everything I've got, the Twelve taught me. But oh, he says, what I've got I didn't get from man, see? But how did he get it? By the revelation of Jesus Christ, the ascended Lord, the resurrected Lord. Now that makes all the difference in the world. Let me go back to another verse. I always have to take them as I think of them. Go back to 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. And here's a verse I dare say that 90 percent of even good Bible student Christians do not know it's here or understand it if they read it. And yet it says what I've just got through saying. 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, let's start with verse 14, where the apostle, and again, always remember, he writes by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he says, the love of Christ constraineth, or pushes us on, because we thus judge that if one died for all, he died for how many? For all. And if that's the case, then they were all dead, that is, spiritually. Now verse 15, and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again. What's he feeding in here? The gospel, see? That's what made these people what they were. They had recognized the gospel and believed it, that Christ died for them and rose again. But that's not the verse I came back here for. It's the next one. Wherefore, in other words, because of the gospel, wherefore, henceforth we know no man after the flesh. Who do you suppose he's referring to? Think. He's talking, no, he's talking about Christ and his earthly ministry. Just look at it. He's talking about Christ and his earthly ministry. Wherefore, because Christ died and rose from the dead, now then his earthly ministry is not that much importance for us. Oh, it's all good to know. Don't misunderstand me. It's good to know about Bethlehem. It's good to know about his miracles. It's good to know about his suffering, and it's good to know about all that took place. But listen, that's not what's required for salvation. What's required for salvation is that we understand that this Christ, this Son of God, the Creator God, went to that cross and died for our sin. But what? He rose from the dead. See the difference? Now read on. Wherefore, henceforth we know no man after the flesh, and here's why I know he's speaking of Jesus and his earthly ministry. The next statement, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh. Now what do you think he's saying? Well, now reconstruct. Saul was no doubt about the same age as Christ. Near as I can discern from Scripture, he was probably contemporary with Christ in age. He was probably 30, 35 when Christ was crucified, which means that during Christ's earthly ministry, Saul of Tarsus was very prime of life. He was filled with that youthful exuberance between 25 and 30. Do you think that even though he never indicates that he met Jesus face to face, do you think for a minute that this religious Jew didn't know everything that was going on in Israel? Of course he did. He knew all about Jesus. He knew all that he was doing, and that's what gave him such an attitude of rebellion. He wanted to stamp it out. All right, now look on. Though we have known Christ after the flesh. I've known about him in his earthly ministry. Yet, now, what's the next word? Henceforth. In other words, from his resurrection on, we know him as such no more. Now, back in the early 70s, when I was still teaching up north, I had a large class of college-age young people every Saturday night. I mean, it was large. We'd just pack them in, about 45, 50 kids on that living room floor. Not in our home. Another lady hosted them. And I had a lot of people that came out of the Jesus movement of the hippie days. You remember them? Oh, they talked Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. But you know what? They knew nothing of Jesus. They knew nothing of the gospel. And you know why? Just what Paul says here. We're not saved by knowing his earthly ministry. We're saved by his death, burial, and resurrection. And again, let me repeat what Paul says. We preach Christ crucified. See? And here's where we have to understand that our gospel is not based on his earthly ministry. Our gospel isn't based on his miracles and on his signs and healings. Our gospel is based on the fact that he died, he paid the sin debt, he defeated death and hell and Satan, and he rose victoriously from the dead, and now he can proclaim what? His life can be our life. And because he arose from the dead, we have already arisen from death spiritually. And one day, if we live long enough and the Lord carries long enough that we die, we're going to be resurrected to a new life. But I think it's getting close enough. We don't have to worry about the cemetery. I think we're just going to go up one of these days. I honestly think it's getting that close. Well, we've got to come to an end. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. A weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer -supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you.