#1382 Luke 10 Part 2 Your Gracious Will

 

21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

23 Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” Luke 10: 21-24 ESV

Luke 10: 21-24 What Jesus Rejoices Over

…8Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus replied, “Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works.… John 14: 8-10

In that same hour - And what hour was this? We should ask these questions in every paragraph. I set out to do this blog, my Bible study, not just to check off some box that I had read the Bible in a year, but rather contemplated every line. I wanted to actually know it, seek the Author's intent, not just say I knew it because I read it once. It has probably taken me 8 years to get this far, and I am amazed that it never grows old, I never find the bottom of it all. So we asked the question here which takes us back to the context, and before this Jesus was talking to the 70 upon their return. He had just told them what they should rejoice all the more for, their salvation.

…10Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 11After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. 12Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.… Isaiah 53: 10-12

He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit - He rejoices in seeing the Father's plan/will accomplished, and in doing the Father's will as He Himself is central to the plan of salvation. This joy has come amidst widespread rejection of Him in His own land, from the very people that had been set apart to tell of His glory, and yet the Father's will is still accomplished by way of the Son through the power of the Holy Spirit. That the demons were subject to the 70 in Christ's name was a temporal thing, the tip of the ice berg, Jesus draws strength and joy from the eternal implications of the Father's will, that these souls have been pardoned and retrieved in Him.

POSB - There is the idea of victorious joy because of the glorious triumph over the arch-enemy Satan. (Luke 10:18-20). Note: this joy comes only from the Spirit; it cannot be worked up. It is a joy of confidence and assurance that arises from down deep within—a confidence and assurance that all is well with God and the victory is won over evil. This was the joy experienced by Christ when the seventy returned. Souls had been snatched from the grip of sin and death, for the power of God over evil had been exercised by men. Satan's fall was assured. God would be victorious within the world as the gospel was carried forth by His servants; the Spirit of God stirred Jesus to rejoice greatly over the victory won. (Borrow Luke Commentary The Preacher's Outline & Sermon Bible) - Precept Austin

…4No longer will you be called Forsaken, nor your land named Desolate; but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be His bride. 5For as a young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you. 6On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD shall take no rest for yourselves,… Isaiah 62: 4-6

…16On that day they will say to Jerusalem: “Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands fall limp. 17The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.” 18“I will gather those among you who grieve over the appointed feasts, so that you will no longer suffer reproach.… Zephaniah 3: 16-18

I thank You, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth - Jesus gives praise to the Father at other times as well, and prays to the Father in regards to those being saved, His flock which He loves. Lord describes God's sovereignty over His creation, heaven and earth, and it is great cause for hope and rejoicing because He is sovereign than so is His will. 

…36But as I stated, you have seen Me and still you do not believe. 37Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.… John 6: 36-38

…40Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted His eyes upward and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42I knew that You always hear Me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me.”…

…43After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth. “Unwrap him and let him go,” Jesus told them. 45Therefore many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him.… John 11: 40-45

…24Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, that they may see the glory You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25Righteous Father, although the world has not known You, I know You, and they know that You sent Me. 26And I have made Your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love You have for Me may be in them, and I in them.”… John 17: 24-26

You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding - When you look among Jesus' followers you don't find a lot of Nicodemus types, only a few because nothing is impossible for God. He will thread the camel through the eye at times for the sake of His own glory, but He will also bring them low and make them contrite. He had a lot of fishermen, the angels brought the news of His birth to lowly shepherds, outcast. The religious elite regarded all these people as beneath them, some as unclean, and others as dumb hicks, unlearned, unimportant. God caused these to flock to His Son, chose the heads of the church from their number, even a tax collector, who would have been deemed the most revolting by many of the Pharisees. He tells a sinful Samaritan woman Who He is, and offers forgiveness to repentant prostitutes. These were given eyes to see their need of Him, and ears to recognize His voice. 

…12He thwarts the schemes of the crafty, so that their hands find no success. 13He catches the wise in their craftiness, and sweeps away the plans of the cunning. 14They encounter darkness by day and grope at noon as in the night.… Job 5: 12-14

…13Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men. 14Therefore I will again confound these people with wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of the wise will vanish, and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.” 15Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”… Isaiah 29: 13-15

25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 26 Brothers, consider the time of your calling: Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were powerful; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.… 1 Corinthians 1: 25-27

For such was Your gracious will - Don't be deceived, if you don't believe in God, if you don't see the truth or hear it, it's not as some suppose because they are too smart, but rather because you don't really want the truth, and God has given you over to what you want. Paul thought he already knew the truth, was a great man of God, even zealous in killing those he thought to be traitors to the truth. He was a Pharisee, highly educated and fervent about the law. God's will was that Saul (his name before Christ) come to the truth, and so it was His will to bring him low, to physically blind him in order for him to see.  

7But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ. 8More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.… Philippians 3: 7-9

All things have been handed over to Me by My Father - One could almost drown here, but from eternity God the Father has made a covenant with God the Son to redeem a people made in Their image. The Father has formulated this plan, has called those who will come to the Son, and the Son now bears the burden of it with the power of the Holy Spirit. He carries out the plan. You can see in the picture of monarchs, the passing of the scepter from Father to Son, and yet it is so much more than that. 

This also echoes the words in John 3:35 "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand." (see same truth in Jn 5:22-27, 13:3, 17:2,10) Handed over (paradidomi) conveys the basic meaning of to give over from one's hand to someone else, to transfer to another, and especially to give over to the power of another. In this case the Father gives the power over all things to the Son. Matthew uses the same verb in the parallel passage Mt 11:27. The aorist tense marks this handing over as depicting a single act at a given time. Robertson commenting on Mt 11:27 says "It is the timeless aorist like edothē ("has been given") in Matthew 28:18 and "points back to a moment in eternity, and implies the pre-existence of the Messiah" (Plummer). The Messianic consciousness of Christ is here as clear as a bell. It is a moment of high fellowship. Note epiginōskei twice for "fully know." Note also boulētai = wills, is willing. The Son retains the power and the will to reveal the Father to men." - Precept Austin

…25God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that crawls upon the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.” 27So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.… Genesis 1: 25-27

15The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.… Colossians 1: 15-17

And anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him - Some incredible truths here. So well knit is the divine prerogative that on one occasion the Son can say, "no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him," and here, no one knows the Father except the Son, or the Son except the Father, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. It is a Trinitarian formula, the Father's will is the divine will, shared with all three persons of the Trinity. 

…43“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus replied. 44“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets: ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me—… John 6: 43-45

…18Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. 19So Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does. 20The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. And to your amazement, He will show Him even greater works than these.… John 5: 18-20

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see - They saw the King, they realized the reality of the Kingdom. Many saw but could not see, heard but did not understand. These were blessed with the faith to see and believe. Many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, David learned of Him as promised from his line by God, Abraham heard of Him as a Seed, even Adam and Eve, not to mention Isaiah and Elijah, who received marvelous revelations, but that which they longed for, the seventy were now talking to. 

Blessed (makarios) are the eyes which see (blepo) the things you see (blepo) - Blessed (makarios) describes their state of being marked by fullness from God. As Zodhiates wisely says "Makários is the one who is in the world yet independent of the world. His satisfaction comes from God and not from favorable circumstances." (Borrow The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament) See (blepo) means more than just able to physically see, but able to perceive enabled (by the Spirit) to discern and understand what their eyes had witnessed physically. Many of their contemporaries saw Jesus, but sadly few of them truly understood Who He was and what was His redemptive purpose. What are the things you see? What had the seventy just experienced? Re-read their description of the things they were blessed to see (Luke 10:17-20+). Of course the greatest sight that blessed their eyes was to see (and understand Who they were seeing) Jesus the Messiah! That will one day be our greatest blessing as believers when "we will see Him just as He is." Hallelujah! (1 John 3:2+). Not only had the seventy witnessed supernatural manifestations of the power of God, Jesus assured them that they would forever be in His presence ("your names are recorded in heaven.") Their eyes had been opened see to eternal truths hidden from worldly wise men (Lk 10:21).

John MacArthur adds that "The things they were privileged to see and understand include the great truths that the Messiah had come, the salvation of God had been revealed, the work of redemption accomplished, the promised kingdom offered, all the Old Testament prophecies, promises, and covenants fulfilled in Christ, who would make the final offering for sin. Satan had met his conqueror, demons were completely dominated, disease vanquished, nature submissive, death defeated through Christ, and forgiveness and eternal life granted to all who believe." (See Luke Commentary) - Precept Austin

…55You do not know Him, but I know Him. If I said I did not know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know Him, and I keep His word. 56Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad.” 57Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and You have seen Abraham?”… John 8: 55-57

38nor does His word abide in you, because you do not believe the One He sent. 39You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me, 40yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.… John 5: 38-40