Luke 8:1-3
Our reading from God’s word is
Luke chapter eight, verses one through three. Remember in the
grand scheme of Luke’s gospel, we have seen from the beginning
chapters, the genealogy of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, the life
and the ministry of Jesus. And as our great King of Kings
is making his way through Galilee, we saw in recent weeks where
he was anointed by what the Pharisees considered a sinful woman. It
was a sinful woman who had been forgiven. And she shows Jesus
through her act of worship, her gratitude for salvation. The
Pharisees couldn’t take it. They couldn’t understand it.
But Jesus did understand it. And so we want to worship our
savior for the redemption. And as we make our way from that
passage at the end of seven to the first couple of verses, of
chapter eight, we see Jesus being ministered to by women who like
the sinful woman who worshiped him, these women support him
in his itinerant ministry of the gospel. So let us hear from
God’s word together. Luke chapter eight, beginning
at verse one, it says, soon afterward, Jesus went on through cities.
He went on through villages. Proclaiming and bringing the
good news of the kingdom of God. And the 12 were with him. And
also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary called the Magdalene, from
whom seven demons had gone out. And Joanna, the wife of Chusa,
from Herod’s household manager. And Susanna and many others who
provided for them. or for him, Jesus, out of their
means. Let us pray together. Our Lord
and God, we thank you for the life and the ministry of Jesus.
We believe in him, his obedience, his death, his resurrection and
have accomplished something for us, our salvation. We know that by faith, we trust
it. And we pray now that as we look
upon these women who out of their means support the work of the
gospel, that we would take example from them in our own lives to
support the work of the ministry out of our own means in order
that others may hear the good news, which has so greatly blessed
us. We pray it in the name of Christ,
our Savior. Amen. Some of you wonder why
ministers, at least ministers in our Presbyterian and Reformed
tradition, wear these black gowns, these Geneva gowns, as they’re
often called. There’s a lot of reasons. It’s
the uniform of the minister. Maybe some of you wear a uniform
in your workplace. It’s for decorum. A robe covers
a multitude of sins, let me just tell you. It saves money on suits. It’s also from the Reformation
a sign of education. Many ministers in the Roman Catholic
Church before the Reformation, they bought their office. It
was a practice called simony. If a man wanted his son to succeed
in the world, just like we’ve seen in recent weeks, Parents
maybe being a bit overzealous to provide for their Children
a way of advancement in this world. They paid for their Children
to get into colleges. Well, a man in times past might
pay for his son to become. an officer, a minister in the
Roman Catholic Church. It was a practice called somnity.
And so the robe is a way of the Reformation to say a man has
taken up an education. He has earned the right to be
heard because of his training in the ministry. There’s also
a bit of maybe it’s a it’s a yoke that Jesus has placed upon a
minister. He must serve the word of God. So we wear these robes,
they’re plain, they’re nondescript, they have no markings on them
really. But what if? We like to think
of what ifs at times. What if What if ministers were
like NASCAR drivers? And we were just covered in this
and that. What if at the end of every sermon,
you think my mind’s gone nuts, don’t you? What if at the end
of every sermon, you know, we stood up to the side and said,
I’d like to thank Sam’s club for this sparkling water. I’d
like to thank Crossway for the English standard version of the
Bible. We’d like to thank Apple for the iPhone and the voice
memo to record the sermon so we can put it up on the Internet
for people around the world to hear. What if we went on and
on like that each week and mentioned who had done what to support
the work of the ministry? Well, it’s kind of inappropriate.
It’s kind of funny, but maybe there’s something to it. Hear
the word of God and Luke chapter 8, it tells us how Jesus was
able to do ministry. It tells us by what means he
was able to sustain an itinerant ministry, one where he traveled
from town to town, village to village, place to place. And
the Word of God tells us he was doing two things. He was proclaiming
or preaching. He was bringing good news or
evangelizing. I’m not sure if you understand
this from the Bibles. Hopefully this will give you
that understanding what I’m about to say. There are specific words
in the language of the New Testament. There are specific words in the
Greek New Testament for preaching. Preaching is a special act of
God’s ministry to his people. And it says here Jesus was proclaiming
or preaching. I want you to not forget that
special word. God in his ministry to his saints
raises up men, raises up ministers to preach to you, not to give
you their advice. This is different than teaching.
This is different than other functions of the ministry. Preaching
is a specific act. When I was in my first church
serving down in Huntersville, outside the Charlotte area, it
was an old country church that was surrounded by the city of
Charlotte over time. And you would hear from time
to time, the folks who had been in that church for generations,
they would say after Sunday school, are you going to preaching? Not
to the worship service. Are you going to preaching? And
in some sense, you got it that they had been taught over time
that preaching was a special act of God in the life and the
ministry of the church. And so we read in Luke chapter
eight that Jesus went from village to village, city to city, proclaiming
or preaching, but also he was Bringing the good news of the
kingdom. That’s another specific word
in the Bible. We don’t just make up these words
evangelism or preaching. They’re right there in the Bible.
So what does it mean when it says Jesus was bringing the good
news? He was evangelizing. He was telling the good news.
So he went from town to town preaching and telling the good
news. He was doing the work of the
kingdom. And our passage tells us. The 12 were with him, his
disciples whom God had given him when he went up on the mountain
to pray. And he chose the 12 apostles
to carry on the work of the ministry. And our passage goes on to say,
plus some women, plus some women who had been healed of demons
and healed of diseases. They were healed by Christ. And
he names three of them. He gives us Mary Magdalene. He
gives us Joanna. He gives us Susanna. Mary Magdalene,
we know the most about. Joanna, we know a tiny bit about.
Susanna, we know literally nothing about her. But Mary Magdalene,
she was healed of seven demons. She had been demon possessed.
If you read your Bibles, read your gospels, you understand
that around the Sea of Galilee, the demons of the devil were
mightily at work. We know of the story of Legion.
We know of the demoniacs. We know that in Jesus’ early
ministry, he went about and he cast demons out of people. Well, Mary Magdalene had seven
demons. And you can imagine her life
before Christ was crippling. Her life before Christ was hopeless. Her life before Christ was maybe one of no escape. And so
you can imagine when Jesus came to her and he cast those demons
out of her, her world changed greatly all of a sudden. What had plagued her, what had
dogged her life, what had ruined her life and had given her periods
of doubt and despair and hopelessness, fears and endless nights of no
sleep and pain and suffering. Jesus, in a word, no doubt, had
healed her and made her whole. And then there’s Joanna. She’s
the wife of Chuza, who’s a steward of Herod. He, in a sense, is
Herod’s checkbook holder. He’s the one who makes sure that
the grass gets mowed and all of Herod’s properties. He’s the
one who makes sure the oil gets changed in his fleet of chariots. You get what I’m saying. He was
in charge. He was next to the big man, the big boss. And so
Joanna is this wife. of a great man in the Roman Empire.
Later, we believe that Joanna, who would have been educated
and well connected in the area, sat down with Luke, the physician
who penned the Gospel of Luke, where we’re studying now, and
the Acts of the Apostles. And she would have provided to
him great information that would have helped in his research for
his writing of the gospel. Both of these women, Mary Magdalene
and Joanna, were with Jesus from now on in his ministry. They
were at the cross and they were at the grave. And on the Lord’s
day, when Jesus was raised from the dead and they went to the
tomb and the stone was rolled back and it was open and Jesus
was not there and they were distraught, Jesus, or they thought the gardener,
appeared to them. And so you see, Mary Magdalene
and Joanna were special people in the life of Jesus. Now, Joanna
or Susanna, this third character, we know her name and nothing
else. The history books tell us nothing of Susanna. The scriptures
tell us nothing else about Susanna. But we’re told that Mary Magdalene,
Joanna, Susanna and many others who were healed of diseases and
demons by Jesus. They heard his kingdom call.
They believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and they were saved. And
they, out of thankfulness, they, out of gratitude, they, out of
service to the king, took up the call. And these healed women
are those who helped Jesus by supporting his ministry. Now,
I want you to stop for just a moment and think with me about how radical
this is. Most rabbis, most teachers in
this day, in this ancient Near Eastern culture, would not have
respected women. They would not have included
women in their itinerant ministry, and they certainly would not
have taken their support. or their prosperity. You see,
the ancient Near Eastern culture looked upon women as property.
They looked upon women as second or third class. Women in the
ancient Near Eastern culture were often not looked upon with
great gratitude and respect. But move over to the scriptures.
Move over to the Bible and you’ll see from Genesis with Eve, the
mother of all living, all the way to the very end of the scripture,
the scriptures elevate women as precious image bearers of
God. And as precious image bearers
of God, they have been given a place of dignity and roles
of great responsibility in this life. One particular place in
the Bible where we see this is in Psalm 144. There’s a prayer
in Psalm 144, and it’s of King David, and it’s after a period
of war. It’s after a period of difficulty
in the kingdom of Israel. And there’s this prayer that
goes something like this, may our children, May our children
as they grow, may our sons be like shoots that grow up into
great trees. And may our daughters be like
the corner pillars, hewn beautifully and supportive. And this vision,
this view of young women in David’s prayer in the Psalms was that
the women would be pillars of strength. In those ancient buildings
in the four corners, there would have been pillars of structure
that would have supported the great and grand structure, but
they would have been carved with vines. They would have had, as
you read about the temple, you know that there were wonderful,
beautiful pieces of art. There was pomegranates, there
were all kinds of wonderful carvings. And so this view that David prays
is that the women would be strong, beautiful supporters of the work
of the kingdom. And so you go on to read, say,
the book of Proverbs. The virtuous woman is a woman
of great strength. Her children are to rise and
call her blessed. Her husband, who is an elder,
is to sit in the gates and praise her. Think about this, the Old
Testament, the law, and the 10 commandments. Honor your father
and your mother. A woman was to be honored, to
be respected, to be obeyed, to be revered by her children. And on and on we could go and
we could show that in the scriptures, women are to be revered. Women
are to be valued. A wife, the proverb says, is
a gift from God Almighty. And so in this passage of Luke,
these three little verses that are tucked away in the midst
of several wonderful stories, we see the first Crowdsourcing,
right? We understand crowdsourcing.
In our day and age, if you want to accomplish someone, you set
up a GoFundMe. You tell people about your business
and you get on Kickstarter. You get the crowd around you
and they support you. You crowdsource the needed capital
to begin an effort worth doing. endeavoring upon. And so we see
Mary and Joanna and Susanna and many others provide for Jesus
out of their means. Sometimes we have questions about
the Bible. One of the questions that always
pops up is this, where did Cain get his wife from? Or we might
ask if we’re really inquisitive, how many times did David sling
the stone around before he let it go and it bopped Goliath on
the head? You think about these things,
I know. These are your great theological questions that keep
you awake in the night. And some of you may have asked,
where did Jesus stay when he preached? Where did he eat when
he went out about preaching through the villages and towns? Where
did he get his clothes from? Well, chapter eight, verses one
through three tells us. These women provided for him
that he might proclaim the kingdom, that he might tell the good news. These women provided for the
work. of the ministry. I have a couple
of books on my shelf. One is called 12 Ordinary Men. And it’s a book that tells about
each of the 12 apostles, each of the 12 disciples, Galilean
fishermen, tax collectors, and on and on it goes, 12 ordinary
men. And in that same book series
came another book, and it’s called 12 Extraordinary Women. And when you read the introduction
to the book and the author’s preface to the book, he says,
yes, these were 12 ordinary men. They were fishermen. They were
Galileans. They were uneducated. And Jesus picked them and they
served the kingdom well. But what about. women. And so
this author set out to write about 12 extraordinary women. And one of those 12 extraordinary
women listed in this book is Mary Magdalene, one whom Jesus
healed, one whom Jesus converted and one who, changed by Almighty
God, became a helper, became a pillar of strength to the church. Think about where Israel would
be. Where would the church be if Jochebed, Moses’ mother hadn’t
had the nerve to stand up to Pharaoh and hide Moses in the
bulrushes. Think about where we would be
if when the angel Gabriel came to Mary and said, you’re going
to have the Christ child. And she said, I don’t think so.
Think about where we would be if women throughout the ages
had not stood up for their faith. and supported the work of the
kingdom so that the good news could be proclaimed so that the
God’s word could be preached. We have a book on our shelf at
home called Reformation Women. And it’s a book that lists and
tells about significant women who throughout the Protestant
Reformation made it possible for most of the men, the Calvins
and the Luthers and the Melanchthons and on and on we could go. We hear about them. But this
book tells about the women behind the Reformation. without their
substance, without their support, the work of the kingdom could
not have taken place. And so God in his providence
says, we need redeemed women helping the redeemer. They were
crippled, they were lost, but they were touched and they were
forever his and they served him out of their means. What does
it mean for us to give of our substance? Here’s another interesting
word you’ll like to think of today. You’re going to be full
of new little words. There’s a preaching word, right? There’s an evangelism
word. Jesus goes about proclaiming
the kingdom, preaching, telling the good news, evangelizing.
But this word, when it speaks of these women giving of their
substance, it’s the deacon word. These women, in a sense, had
a diaconal ministry. And if you ever wonder what a
deacon is, this is, this is it. Deacons make the ministry of
the word possible. I have a good friend who was
a deacon in a church where I served. And every Sunday, every Sunday,
he would meet me in the parking lot and he would take, I couldn’t
even get out of my car. He would open the door for me.
He would take my coat. He would take my Bible. He would
take my bag and my things. And he would take it in and place
it where it needed to be. And there would always be a cup
of water. The sound system would always
be on. The batteries would always be changed in the microphone.
The robe, if it needed to be dry cleaned, he took it. Everything
was set because he took his diaconal ministry seriously. And you see
what’s going on here. Jesus’ ministry would not have
been possible without these redeemed women. And so, dear friends,
we have to understand this is this is not a unique setting,
a unique situation. You go on through the book of
Acts, which Luke also wrote, and you’ll bump into Lydia. Lydia
was a clothing dealer. She dealt in purple cloth. She was a dyer. She prevailed
upon the apostles when they were preaching to receive her hospitality. And out of her wealth for a time,
she provided for the church. And throughout church history,
we see examples of men and women and boys and girls giving of
their substance, being deacons, servants to the ministry of the
word. They made the ministry of preaching
and telling the good news of the gospel possible. Let me ask you, is God using
you? Is God using your substance?
Is God using your means? I have a friend in the church
from years back, the first church I served. And this fellow told
me something very bold. He wasn’t being ostentatious
about it. He was just being factual. He said, Brian, I have the ability
to make money. You have the ability to preach.
So I’ll go make the money. I’ll give the money and you preach.
That’s a good deal. This man saw his ability to work,
his ability to earn as a way to make the kingdom function.
And you could take that face value and say, how ostentatious
of the man. But no, this man was converted.
He was saved by Christ and he realized he was not his own.
He was bought at a price and his marching orders would come
from the king. And in his bounty, he could make the ministry of
the church possible. Is God using you? Or maybe the
question is, could God use you? Maybe you’ve come to faith in
Jesus, but you’ve not surrendered at all to him. Maybe you’ve come
to faith in Jesus and instead of reaching into your pockets
and making the work of the ministry possible, you’ve kept your hands
in your pockets and said, you know, what’s mine is mine and
God can get his own. Dear friends, you see what these
women in this passage are doing. They’ve experienced Jesus. They’ve
been healed. And they know that what Jesus
is proclaiming in the villages, what he’s preaching in the countrysides
is really good news because it has reached them. And so they
make sure that Jesus and his ministry is supported so that
others can hear that wonderful news. Let us pray together. Our
Lord and God, we thank you that in Christ, We have been touched. We have been healed. You have
spoken a word and we have risen from the dead. You have commanded
and the evil spirits have come out. You have cleansed us. You have washed us. You have
remade us. You have made us born again to
a living hope, to an inheritance that will not spot, perish or
fade. While it is not yet night, there
is work to do. We pray every Sunday, thy kingdom
come. But sometimes we keep our wallets shut, our purses zipped. May we be like these dear women
who were helped and healed by Jesus. And so they helped him
in order that he might proclaim and tell the good news of the
gospel of Jesus. Lord, change us so that it affects
our date books. Change us so that it affects
our pocketbooks and change us so that it gives us hands and
feet that want others to know this good news that has so radically
affected us that we can’t help but support the work of the ministry
so that others may hear and receive and believe and be free from
their crippling demons and diseases. For the glory of God, we ask
this and we pray it in Jesus name, amen.