Paul Irvin - November 1, 2026
/Transcript
Okay. So, I did announce last week a subject matter, at least a passage that passed some chapters we'd be looking at today. And so, I'm not going to ask for people to raise their hands if they actually looked at that portion of God's Word, because right now you all are trying to think, now, what was that? And I will tell you eventually.
Yeah, 1 Peter chapter 2. This is not the passage. But it's just a jumping off thing. Laying a foundation, as we say.
And actually, I think our brother Kamal read for some of these verses. 1 Peter chapter 2, after Peter has exhorted the believers to submit to the governing authorities. And that applies, folks, regardless of how these things happen on Tuesday. Verse 17, he says, Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.
And then he writes this, Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable if, because of conscience toward God, one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable for God.
For to you, for to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example. That you should follow in his steps. And he describes those steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return.
When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously. Who himself bore our sins, and his own body on the tree that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Peter exhorts the believers to follow Christ's steps, that our Lord Jesus Christ not only came as the great sacrifice for sins, not only our Redeemer, but also as our example, as our prototype, as the one whose steps we are to follow.
So, in order to do that, of course, it's important that we know as much about Christ as the Scriptures reveal to us, so that we know what example to follow. We must know Him. We must know His ways and His words. We must know how He reacted to certain situations so that when similar things might happen to us, we can act accordingly.
So here's a question that will reveal perhaps how many of you were looked into the passage that I suggested you look into this past week. And this is sometimes what I recall some professors doing in our classes where they would not just call out a general question, but would actually call on specific people and ask them to respond to what was in the assignment. And so, I will give you at least this parameter that we are going to be looking in the Gospel of Luke to look at our Lord Jesus Christ examples. The steps, the way He spoke and acted.
So, here's the question. In this portion, we're going to be considering a great number of people that the Lord, well, we will see that there were great multitudes that the Lord interacted with, teaching and healing. There were, we were going to be looking at several of those who are specifically in specific individuals that we are going to take lessons from concerning our Lord Jesus Christ and its application to us as we seek to follow him. And so he granted these individuals, many, many of them, he granted their requests, mostly to deal with healing for what they were going through, either on their part or others.
But there was one person who made a request, who prayed. Anytime you're making a request to deity, we could consider that a prayer. This individual is actually known for some short prayers. And the Lord did not affirmatively answer the prayer of this person.
So who was that? And what was his request? What was his prayer? Praying for?
Praying for? Nope. Good. No, it's out.
It's out. I'm sorry. I should have direct made this clear. I'm not speaking very clearly this morning for whatever reason, but it's found within Luke chapter 5, 6, or 7 in Luke's Gospel.
I'm sorry. All right. The professor would say, it looks like we're going to have to read a lot of this, but that's fine. Yes, Wayne.
No, although his name does begin with P. We're getting there. He had a prayer. The Lord did not affirmatively answer his prayer.
Jonathan Burson. Yes. Who was it? Peter.
Yes. And what did he, what was his prayer? Go away from the Lord. Yes, that's very good.
Thank you. All right. So we're going to actually start with Peter's, that particular encounter that the Lord and Peter had. Just again, as a very brief background, you know, the Gospel of Luke is the first of two books, of course, that Luke penned through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
And the one of which we are studying this evening, put in another commercial for our study at seven o'clock on Zoom. And Luke does give us quite a bit of detail about the Lord's coming to this earth, more than the other Gospel writers. And gives us the only detail, really, that we have about the Lord's growing up in Nazareth. And then he goes on to talk, you know, as the other Gospels do, about his temptation, his baptism.
And then Luke, before we get to chapter 5, of course, there's chapter 4, and he brings out that the Lord was preaching around the towns there in Galilee and particularly gives notice of the time he was preaching at Nazareth and how he was essentially run out of his hometown because he preached about God dealing favorably with some Gentiles in the Old Testament, making known of course in that same teaching there that he was fulfillment of prophecy. Even though he was run out of that town, he was still popular in the surrounding areas as we'll see. And for a jumping off point, read a couple of verses at the end of chapter 4. Beginning at verse 40.
It's just healed Peter's mother-in-law and then when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. And demons came out of many crying out and saying, "You are the Christ, the Son of God." And he rebuking them did not allow them to speak for they knew that he was the Christ. Now when it was day, he departed and went up into a desert place and the crowd sought him and came to him and tried to keep him from leaving them.
But he said to them, "I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities, because for this purpose I have been sent." And he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee. So great multitudes were following him. In fact, so many multitudes that when he got to the shore there, the lake of Gennesaret, Lake Galilee, that he needed to put out in a boat for his podium, so to speak, for his preaching spot, so he could better communicate to the multitudes that had followed him.
And so he borrowed a boat that just happened to be Peter's boat. And we will pick up in verse 4 of chapter 5. "When he had stopped speaking, he said to Simon, 'Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.' But Simon answered and said to him, 'Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing.
Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net.' And when he had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. And they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink.
And as we've already considered, Peter's reaction to this miracle, when Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Notice that he went from addressing Lord as master, teacher, to actually acknowledging him as Lord. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken. And also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
And Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men. So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed him. We're going to be looking at these encounters that the Lord Jesus had with these individuals, starting with Peter here.
And I don't know if it ever occurred to you, but think about all the multitudes that Jesus interacted with. Just in this passage that we read, there were several great crowds. There were, as we'll see, crowds wherever he went during this time of popularity there in the region of Galilee. So why is it that Luke, Luke, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, selected just a few of those to record the details of their particular interactions and the miracle that Jesus performed during that interaction.
He performed many miracles, had many, many interactions. Why these several? Well, I'm going to give you a theory. And the theory is that the Lord taught through parables, earthly stories that have heavenly truths.
And my theory is that each of these interactions was what we could consider a living or historical parable. That is, there's going to be things that we can learn through those interactions that tell us something specific about the Lord Jesus Christ. And then also we can gather from that, from what they tell us about Him, application to ourselves as we seek to follow His steps. So the first one here is with Peter.
And there's no healing involved here, but there is a miracle concerning Peter's work. So the first thing we're looking at then has to do with the Lord's interaction with somebody concerning their daily labor. Peter was not enthusiastic about putting out after he had toiled all night long with his partners, James and John, and perhaps others, seemingly without a single fish to account for. But he did put out and cast his net out because he was obeying his master.
Peter's reaction to the tremendous catch that the Lord had granted him, the Lord is no man's debtor, of course. He had borrowed Peter's boat, and so now he's paying him back, so to speak, many times full for the use of his craft. But Peter's reaction, when he realized that he was indeed in the presence of holiness, the Holy One of God, the one who would know more about the aspect of his own daily labor than he, an expert fisherman, would know. Even though his occupation, as far as we're told in Scripture, was that he was a builder or a carpenter, not a fisherman.
So Peter's reaction was what we would consider the aspect of an Old Testament reaction to the presence of holiness. Much like the prophet Isaiah had when he had his holy vision, as you will remember, the thrice holy God. And that is to acknowledge that he was a sinner and that sinners cannot abide in the presence of holiness. So his prayer, his request, was for the Lord to depart.
The Lord did not honor that request. And in fact, what he did was he commissioned him to be a co-worker with him, with the Lord, in his mission of preaching the kingdom of God. And so we see that the Lord was not desirous. Let's put it in a positive frame.
His desire was to associate Peter in that great work. And it's from that aspect that we see that the Lord is, as part of his ways, desires people, works through people, desires people to be his co-laborers. Paul mentions that in his first epistle to the Corinthians, where he comments that we are fellow workers with him. And not only fellow workers with him, but also fellow workers with other believers.
It's interesting that it specifies that James and John, Peter's partners, were also called in the same way to be fishers of men. And the large catch, symbolic course, of what happened on the day of Pentecost when there were so many thousands added to the kingdom of God that became the infant church on that day. And I would tell you that the Lord is still looking for us to be co-laborers with Him. And as much as we might acknowledge that we are sinful, the Lord seeks such to be workers with Him.
There's another individual that was caught that the Lord called while he was working. And it's found at beginning at verse 27 where Matthew the tax collector, Levi, was also called. And he specifically was one that was, his occupation was one that was not highly thought of to be, to make a very understatement by the Jewish nation. But nevertheless, the Lord called him to follow him, and Matthew left all that he had and followed him, the same as Peter, joining them as co-laborers.
So the first thing we're looking at is the Lord and his work. The next individual we come across is a leper, and beginning at verse 13, chapter 4, and it happened when he was on a certain way that, behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus, and he fell at his face and implored him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Then he put out his hand and touched him, saying, I am willing, be cleansed. Immediately, leprosy left him.
Here is a man not only suffering from leprosy, but was described as being full of it, and at the Lord's touch, it all left him. And he charged him not to tell anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded. However, the report went about concerning him all the more, and the great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities. So he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.
What's in focus here with this encounter is the subject of willingness. The question that, well, it was a statement that the leper made is that he knew that if the Lord was willing, he could be made clean. And as we thought about this morning, the Lord was willing. He was willing to take the cup, the cup of God's wrath, and to drink it to the dregs.
And here the request was for cleansing. Leprosy, of course, is often seen as a picture of sin. So once more we have an aspect of sin before us. One Peter acknowledging himself as a sinner as he went about his daily labor.
And here the leper who has a disease that is a picture of sin. And the question was, would the Lord be willing to cleanse him? And of course, he was. The Lord, as here, the Lord is not just not answering Peter's prayer about departing, but he's actually extending his hand.
And as was thought to be a violation of the law to reach out and to touch the leper. So not only, so we have a picture that the Lord is willing that we should be in close fellowship with Him as He identified with the leper. And I'm sure that the leper was probably just anticipating that the Lord would just speak the word and cleanse him and was probably very surprised at the Lord's touch. But this is, of course, in that area where He is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think.
So the question is, as we consider this aspect of willingness, how willing are we to extend our hand to help others in their need? The next person that is encountered in our parables, our historic parables, or is the paralytic, of course, the man born by four, let down through the roof. We know this story from our Sunday school lessons. Very familiar story to us.
And here there were teachers of the law and Pharisees that were crowded around the Lord to hear what he was teaching because of his great popularity. And this one was brought in who was unable to walk. And the Lord started out not by empowering him to walk, not by healing his paralysis, but by first forgiving his sins. And of course that created thoughts, not pleasant thoughts, from those doctors of the law and the Pharisees.
So the Lord says in, we just pick it up at verse 23, which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, rise up and walk. But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. And immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.
And they were all amazed, and they glorified God along with him, and were filled with fear, saying, we have seen strange things today. The Lord empowers us as he empowered this man to walk with him. It's a picture of the Lord's desire that we would have a walk that would be pleasing to him. And look, of course, into the book of Ephesians and realize that not only are we seated with the Lord in heavenly places, but then we are to have a walk, a walk that is in love.
So now, we get to chapter 6, and we see a couple of parables this time, not dealing so much with the encounter, not dealing so much with the sinner, but the subject matter of sin itself. After all, we need to know what sins are, so we can avoid them. And we have two instances here. We'll not read them for time's sake, but the one where the Lord and His disciples are going through a cornfield on the Sabbath day, and they were gleaning from them and rubbing the wheat or corn in their hands and consuming it, which would have been work on the Sabbath.
And then the other, of course, with a man whose right hand was withered and was there before them, before the scribes and the Pharisees watching on as to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath. And indeed, he did. And he comments, you know, in reaction to their thoughts against him for violating the Sabbath, he says, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to give life or destroy? And so, we see that the Lord was more concerned, concerning the aspect of what is involved in sin, not so much with the letter of the law, as to whether that might technically, these actions might technically be a violation of the third or fourth commandment, depending on which translation you're looking at, of keeping the Sabbath without doing any work at all.
And then, while we're here, we'll look at some of the Lord's teachings. So, the Lord was basically giving the aspect that we have to look at the circumstances and the details of the situation before condemning someone for violating what appears to be the letter of the law. We are to be more controlled or motivated by the love of the Lord than the letter of the law. So, then he teaches and he gives some very high bar here as to what actual morality looks like in verses, starting at verse 27.
This is a kind of a summary of the Sermon on the Plain, which is very, has a lot of the same thoughts as the Sermon on the Mount. And I'll just read a few of these verses just to give you an idea of what the Lord has commanded us to do beyond keeping rituals and regulations. Verse 27, he says, and this is speaking specifically to his disciples, says, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you and pray for those who spitefully use you.
To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away from your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods, do not ask them back.
And just as you want men to do to you, also do likewise to them. Not only are we to love our neighbors, as he will teach later in this Gospel, love your neighbor as yourself. But we are to actually, he raises the bar even higher. Love your enemies.
This is an aspect of morality that is beyond what we are capable of doing without supernatural help. It is not natural to love those who you consider to be your enemies. He encourages us in these few verses beyond that we should pray for those who spitefully use us. That's one aspect of loving those who we might consider to be enemies.
Now, I don't know who today, as you sit here, you might consider to be an enemy or an adversary or someone who spitefully uses you. But if you think about that person, the person does come to mind. Think about how you can love that person in return to whatever harm or adverse action they have taken against you. That is what the Lord calls us to do.
That is His definition of holiness. And we should abide by that command. Now, to complete our study of these several individuals, and we want to get to chapter 7, since that was within the assignment, we have two other incidents to make mention of. The first is the God-fearing centurion, who was in pleading the Lord on behalf of a beloved servant of his.
And the Lord, we can just read a few verses here, beginning at verse 6. This man was described as one who loved the Jewish nation and has built a synagogue for them. In verse 6, then Jesus went with them, and when he was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not even think myself worthy to come to you, but say the word, and my servant will be healed.
And of course, that's exactly what the Lord did. He stopped short of going into the man's house, and he healed the servant simply by his word. So we started off with the work, the Lord calling us to be co-laborers with him, the willingness that the Lord had that we should also share in helping and ministering to others. We had our walk, that we should walk in love as he has empowered us to do.
And now we have the aspect of his word that we can rely on it and the power it has in our lives. One final incident that we can look at, and that is, of course, the encounter that Peter had while he was, I'm sorry, that the Lord had while he was invited into the home of a Pharisee. The story begins at verse 36. We'll not read all of it, but as, oh, I did have one other question that I wanted to ask about the aspect of loving our enemies.
It occurred to me during our worship service, as we were reading out of Romans chapter 5, that who in Scripture, or specifically, described as being the enemies of God? Huh? Us. Yes.
Another correct answer from the front row. Yes, very good. Yes, us, when we were yet enemies of God. That's just an interesting side note on that, that he didn't want to pass by.
Okay, we're dealing with the Lord being in this house of the Pharisee. I mean, it seems like the interactions that the Lord had had with Pharisees were kind of, you know, kind of adversarial for the most part. But here he is sharing a dinner with the Pharisee, accepting his invitation. And this woman comes in who was known to be a sinner.
It's not specifically described as to what that sin was, but it was apparently well known in that community. And so she came in and began to worship him, demonstrating her thankfulness with her tears in verse 38 and wiping his, wiping the Lord's feet with the head of her hair and anointing her. And she was planting those feet with the fragrant oil that she brought in. All aspects of worship.
Now, the thought we had was kind of a growing closeness in some respects in the Lord's encounters. We saw him not departing from Peter, although Peter requested that. We saw him then reaching out to the leper and touching him even in his contagious state, willing to heal him. And it's one thing, you know, for the Lord to decide who he is going to be close to, who he is going to allow to have a relationship with him.
But here, he accepted the close touch of this sinful woman. A woman who had already been forgiven her sins, by the way. If you read the story, it might be a little bit unclear in some translations about whether the Lord just forgave her sins right there on the spot. But he had already forgiven her sins.
And it was out of that forgiveness that she came and worshipped him in such a wonderful and intimate. Way. And the Lord accepted that worship. And so it is today that he desires us to worship him.
And regardless of whether we think ourselves of how much of a debtor to him, because the Lord told a parable, within this historical living parable, there was a parable that the Lord gave of two debtors, of course, and the one having been forgiven a little, and the one having been forgiven a lot, and the one who was forgiven a lot loved much. And so, sometimes we would identify ourselves as we consider our lives, not that we are to be focused on our failures, but we would say, yes, I have been forgiven much. I can give that testimony. So, the question is then, applying this final encounter as an application, do we love Him much in return?
Am I demonstrating in my life the love for Him? Am I motivated to be a co-laborer of His, to be willing to reach out to others, to having a walk that would be worthy of Him? To depending upon, am I depending upon His Word and finding that to be sufficient in my life? In other words, am I loving Him in return to what He has forgiven me?
May it be so for all of us as we attempt to follow His steps. Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your Word. We thank You once again for our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You that He is our great example, that we can look into Your Word and see how He acted and how He spoke, and that we can use these as a guide to how we should act and how we should speak.
We do pray that You would help us in this. We pray that You would help us to have hearts that would be responsive to those around us, even to the point of loving those who are adversarial to us. We thank You again and pray these things in the Lord Jesus' precious name. Amen.
